September 24, 2007
"Education for judgment"
Posted by
Mark Kleiman
My dean, Barbara Nelson, made her annual welcoming speech to the new students today, and gave one of the best short riffs I've heard on what public policy schools are about:
Professional education is in its deepest essence education for judgment. It is an education about how to balance goods and bads under uncertainty. It is not an education solely about saving the spotted owl, but saving the spotted owl, valuing old growth forest, ensuring viable economic opportunities for rural communities rooted in extractive industries, and recognizing that we all enjoy wood products at incredibly cheap prices, from paper, to furniture, to wood for houses, which are often sold retail in stores with limited commitment to health insurance or pensions for their workers.
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