To what extent do we know how to know?

In response to the global economic crisis, people have been debating what went wrong and how we can prevent a future collapse. There are those who advocate the full-fledged transformation of our financial institutions — stricter regulations and an end to sky-high bonuses that promote risk-taking behavior. Others suggest a change in societal values — curtailing the off-the-charts consumption and insatiable greed that permeated the subprime era.

Though both of these arguments are valid to an extent, they fail to address the underlying issue of the American worker and his or her contentious relationship with globalization. In order for the U.S. to come out of this global recession stronger and more secure, we must invest not only in our banks and our military, but in our workers. And how can we do that? The answer is education — not more education, but smarter education. We need to figure out how to know.

In his recent New York Times column, “The New Untouchables,” Thomas Friedman discusses the decline in the American worker’s global competitiveness as a result of our ill-equipped education system. He suggests that we don’t simply need more high school and college graduates, but more of them with the right kind of education — one which fosters complex problem-solving skills and innovation above all else.

In other words, knowledge is useless if it can’t be applied. It is not what you know that is most important, but rather, knowing how to know.

Prior generations tended to emphasize straight-forward career paths: lawyer, accountant, doctor and, if that doesn’t work out, dentist. The best way to ensure your economic livelihood, as the story goes, was to opt for a “safe” career and take the standard, sequential steps to get there. But as Friedman bluntly states, “vanilla doesn’t cut it anymore.”

Author Malcolm Gladwell sees eye-to-eye with Friedman, as was evidenced in a recent interview with TIME Magazine, in which he stated, “The issue is not writing. It's what you write about.” Gladwell highlighted journalist Jonathan Weil who broke the Enron story because, as he pointed out, Weil “really knows how to read a balance sheet.” Gladwell praised Weil, stating, “Most accountants don’t write articles, and most journalists don’t know anything about accounting.”

The lesson here seems to be that following the norm is both overrated and outdated. Being smart in traditional terms doesn’t necessarily translate to employment anymore.

As Friedman points out, “Those who are waiting for this recession to end so someone can again hand them work could have a long wait. Those with the imagination to make themselves untouchables — to invent smarter ways to do old jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies — will thrive.”

It seems that Friedman and Gladwell are endorsing a new definition of smart, which is largely altered by the realities of a globalized world. On the one hand, it requires specialization to be smart (in Gladwell’s words, “the role of the generalist is diminishing”); yet, on the other hand, to be smart also means to be well-rounded. For the most part, the American professional — and our greater education system — has struggled to reconcile this seemingly contradictory definition of what it means to be smart. As a result, the average professional — the man or woman trained to be traditionally “smart” with a narrow skill set — is less able to compete in today’s economy.

Just as “untouchable” careers are dwindling rapidly, so, in some sense, is the value of a university degree. While the link between an Ivy League education and success is certainly high, it is by no means guaranteed. Moreover, the expectation that a Cornell diploma is enough to secure a high-paying job post-graduation has become more and more uncertain.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, only 19.7 percent of 2009 college graduates who applied for a job actually have one, compared to 51 percent of students graduating in 2007. Such harsh realities should not trivialize a Cornell education, but rather reflect the realities of the global economic crisis.

In light of these realizations, in conjunction with Cornell’s own financial crisis, I’ve been thinking about what exactly merits a Cornell degree. I’ve wondered: How will graduating from Cornell prepare me to compete in this increasingly globalized world? To what extent are we simply regurgitating information, or are we really learning how to think?

Through my own experiences, I would suggest that here at Cornell I have been taught how to think. The extent to which this is true on a University-wide scale, however, is questionable. Additionally, I’m worried that a campus commitment to developing analytical thinking skills will easily fall by the wayside with pending budget cuts. Therefore, the administration should extend its “reimagining” efforts to analyze the purpose of a university education at large.

The reality is that the world is not the same place it was when Cornell was founded in 1865, nor the place it was even three years ago. Though adhering to its founding principles of “any person, any study” is fundamental to Cornell’s legacy, the University must also adapt the kind of education it provides to reflect inevitable changes in the world. Reconciling tradition with the new type of “smart” demanded by today’s world is a profoundly strenuous task that Cornell, alongside all other academic institutions, must make a top priority.

There is no panacea for the global economic crisis, nor the financial struggles of the University. Yet, if addressed objectively and pragmatically, by emphasizing innovation, creativity and critical thinking skills, the University — and our country — can come out of this recession better and stronger than ever before. Because at the end of the day, if you know how to think, you will always be “untouchable.”

Carolyn Witte is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She may be reached at cwitte@cornellsun.com. Wit’s End appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.