Education vs. Degree

The commencement speech by Wallace entitled “On Life and Work” for me is interesting because it is unique in a way that it is a nontraditional commencement speech. It is interesting that it starts out like a conversation rather than conventional speeches.

First impression? To tell you the truth, well this is what I said, “seven pages, I don’t want to read seven pages” but I did because I read the first paragraph and before I knew it I was done with all seven pages. Wallace poses some interesting points in terms of education and getting a degree.

I was a little confused on the two little stories he told, I mean what fish doesn’t know what water is? I still don’t know what it means but if I had to guess I would say that the fish story represents the teachers and the students and how we respond to each other. As far as the two guys in the bar I cannot begin to describe what I think it means.

As far as education and getting a degree he posses some interesting ideas on if getting a degree is really worth it. To him I believe he feels that a degree is just a piece of paper saying that you went to school, where as to others a degree is something you learn through your mind, that the paper you get is worth nothing if you don’t learn something.

I feel like for the most part he is talking about our beliefs and our system of how we grew up. I beliefs center around my religious belief, I was raised in the episcopal church, and went to catholic school, so much of my beilefs come from a mixture of both. So I guess I am “epsicolic” I really don’t know, but for me many of his beliefs are similar to mine and many are different.

By Sarah Plisinski