By day, a mild-mannered citizen…
By night, I’m a Harvard student.
Oh, by all means, go ahead. No, it’s all right; I’ll wait. I might even giggle. Get it out of your system. Seriously, it’s okay. We’ve got all day. I’ve heard it all before… How the Extension school is not the same as Harvard College. (Well, you’re right, it isn’t.) How it’s “Harvard Light.” (That one’s not quite right, but we’ll get to that.) How it’s for those who couldn’t hack it at Harvard for real. No, don’t start there-go back a bit. First, go back, start by explaining to me how the lack of SAT requirements waters down the competition, how the once-or-twice-a-week format dilutes the curriculum. That’s a good place to start. From there, we can move on to the arguments about people trying to pass it off as a Harvard Degree (it is, did you mean a Harvard College degree? Thanks. I’m prepared to be precise!) And finally, let’s fight dirty, and talk about how I’m one of the masses, and dilute the school brand. Got all that?
Right. Let’s go.
First, maybe, we’ll explain that I’m wasting my time, a 32-year old nobody with a day job and no education sitting in a Harvard classroom. Because I’ve heard it, but let’s sing it again. If you’re somebody, you go to Harvard College. Go swim with the sharks. Don’t waste your time in the kiddie pool.
Oh, I’ve heard it.
But I remember something that the founders of Harvard knew, something which led to the progressive moves Harvard has made to ensure financial aid for every needy student, something which led to the very development of the Extension school. This is a very simple, very vital truth about our society. It’s something that people forget, in the pushing and shoving to get into the classrooms during the day.
Common men matter.
The Extension school was not designed just so that Grandma could go take a Medeival French class in her spare time. Sure, that was part of it- remember, Harvard believes wholeheartedly in arming the populace with education, in any kind that they’ll take to. But Harvard also was founded upon the idea that plain folk like me, those who used to be farmers and grocers and shopkeepers and the sons and daughters who would otherwise never have gone to college, being too busy keeping families or businesses running, have brains. And can be taught to use them. So now you have those of us who-well, fine. We’re farmers and grocers and shopkeepers, but we’re the ones who want to be well-educated farmers and grocers and shopkeepers and sons and daughters.
This college, and this country, are founded upon the idea that greatness cannot be conferred by any external means. Greatness cannot be offered just by means of education. It comes from within, and has no regard for circumstances. However, as with health and money related to happiness, having the former can’t guarantee the latter. Not havingthem significantly increases the odds against it, but having them is no guarantee.
Well, education is the same way. It is not true that giving the materials out can make any one person become great. All people are not created the same. But the very Harvard experience is predicated on the fact that if you hand out the materials such that they are accessible to all, greatness will seize them and rise.
Well, yes, and so will I. But this isn’t just about me. This is a dangerous, very liberal concept. Not everyone will benefit from education. But what Harvard is founded upon is the idea that the value of education does not come from what a University education brings us. It comes from what we are willing to bring to the process of our education.
Of course there are Extension students looking for easy classes. There are students looking for the Harvard name only. There are those in every Harvard group. There are ALSO students who are thriving on challenge, who are every bit as bright and determined as the young ’sharks’ that swim in the daytime classes. (Incidentally, I’m not really one of them. I took the SAT, and I know pretty well how bright I am, but I also know how bright ‘genius,’ is, and will make no claims to my actual intelligence. I’m just smart enough to know that it is work, and not merely gift, that makes genius.)
What makes us different is that we are willing to push harder, to do the work at Harvard level, with our outside lives still going on. I had a teacher recommend that I apply to “Harvard Proper.” But what would I do with my life? How would I pay my rent, should I sell all my things to live in a dorm? The best I’ve met with was an advisor who screwed up her face and said, “Hm. It would take some serious sacrifices.”
I’m not prepared to make those sacrifices. I am doing good (not just doing well, but actually doing some good for the world) where I am. I am also doing well. My medical conditions are stable enough to let me work full time and manage my school as well. I love the education that I’m getting. My teachers are not just helpful, they are obsessed. They are teaching to students who really want to be there.
I want to be here. I’m the only one of four siblings to graduate high school, let alone go to college. I love it. I bring my education with me everywhere. The Extension school recognises that it takes extra work to be this level of engaged, this level of committed. A Harvard College degree is not like a Harvard Extension degree in the same way that walking a tightrope in spangles is not the same as juggling three plates and a bowling ball on a tightrope in cutoff jeans with no audience. No, we are not called upon to be there every day in the classroom. No, we don’t have youth and beauty on our side, in some cases. (Mine.) No, we don’t consider ourselves destined to a life of advantage just for using the Harvard name. (Some will try, I wash my hands of them. I’m not hiding that I went to the extension school; I’m anonymous because I still attend.)
I could have gone to Cambridge College, whose specialty is preparing people who are not ready for college. I could have gone to any of the other night schools out there. BU, for example. I chose Harvard.
I realised why, not on my first course, or my third, but on my fourth, when I discovered that the professor I’d taken my third course from had literally written the books on the subject I was researching for a paper. It turns out he’s one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject.
I’m new here. I didn’t know.
But that’s why Harvard. And why the Extension school. My school takes place everywhere, all the time, as I integrate these concepts into the world outside. I take my education to work with me every day. I work for grades at my lunch hour. I struggle with flash cards on the train. Am I diluting your brand? Well, not anymore than you’re diluting mine, out here in the world where we earn our bread.
Yes, I go to your Harvard. And I’m prepared for it. Are you prepared for mine?
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