What Does It Mean To Be Educated?

<div class="header alignfull header--article header--min-height-full has-background has-tonal-black-background-color"> <div class="header__layout"> <div class="header__content"> <div class="header__metadata"><div class="header__metas"><div class="header__meta header__meta--taxonomy header__meta--tax-category"> Blog Posts</div></div></div> <h1 class="header__title has-h2-variant">Archives</h1> <h3 class="wp-block-heading has-h3-variant" id="h-the-socrates-program-and-doane-university">The Socrates Program and Doane University</h3> <div class="header__metadata"><div class="header__metas"><div class="favorite-block"> <button class="favorite" data-id="204281" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" /></svg></button></div> <div class="header__meta header__meta--date"> May 6, 2026</div></div></div> </div> </div> <figure class="header__media" role="presentation"> <img decoding="async" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-1920x996.jpeg" alt="Socrates Doane Seminar Participants" width="1920" height="996" srcset="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-1920x996.jpeg 1920w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-800x415.jpeg 800w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-1500x778.jpeg 1500w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-768x398.jpeg 768w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-1536x797.jpeg 1536w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-1600x830.jpeg 1600w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-1200x622.jpeg 1200w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-1024x531.jpeg 1024w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409-300x156.jpeg 300w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923237024-e1778094177409.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" loading="eager" class="header__image" style="object-position: 50% 92%"> <span class="header__overlay" style="opacity: 1"></span> </figure> </div> <div class="wp-block-group alignfull is-style-contour-lines has-white-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--large);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--large)"> <div class="wp-block-columns alignwide is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex"> <div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="flex-basis:33.33%"> <div class="post-people"> <div class="post-people__person"> <figure class="post-people__headshot"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="287" height="300" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danny-Harris-287x300.png" class="attachment-mobile size-mobile" alt="" srcset="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danny-Harris-287x300.png 287w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danny-Harris-765x800.png 765w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danny-Harris-768x803.png 768w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danny-Harris-1043x1090.png 1043w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danny-Harris-1148x1200.png 1148w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danny-Harris-646x675.png 646w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danny-Harris-647x676.png 647w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Danny-Harris.png 1198w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px" style="object-position: 50% 50%" /> </figure> <div class="post-people__info"> <h3 class="post-people__name"> <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/danny-harris/" class="post-people__link"> Danny Harris </a> </h3> <p class="post-people__position"> Executive Director </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="flex-basis:66.66%"> <p class="">My heart is full after three days in Crete, Nebraska, leading a seminar on “What Does It Mean To Be Educated?” — a partnership, a year in the making, between the <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/socrates-program/" type="program" id="1514">Aspen Institute Socrates Program</a> and <a href="https://www.doane.edu/" type="link" id="https://www.doane.edu/">Doane University</a>.</p> <p class="">Crete is a remarkable community, anchored by a 150-year-old university that is thinking seriously about the present and future of higher education. Under the leadership of President Roger Hughes and VP Luis Sotelo, Doane is opening its doors to the community, alumni, and partners—not just to adapt to change, but to rethink what a university and a college degree mean to students and society.</p> <p class="">Across a community dinner of nearly 200 and a closed-door seminar of 25, we wrestled with a set of enduring questions:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li class="">What is education for—preparation for work, cultivation of citizenship, formation of character, or something harder to define?</li> <li class="">How do our assumptions about truth, authority, and inquiry shape what we teach, how we teach, and whom we serve?</li> <li class="">As AI reshapes how knowledge is produced and accessed, what must remain constant, and what must be reimagined?</li> <li class="">What is the future of a liberal arts education?</li> </ul> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1492" height="972" style="object-position:50% 50%" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923236400-1-e1778093455329.jpeg" alt="Doane University and Aspen Institute" class="wp-image-204312" srcset="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923236400-1-e1778093455329.jpeg 1492w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923236400-1-e1778093455329-800x521.jpeg 800w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923236400-1-e1778093455329-768x500.jpeg 768w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923236400-1-e1778093455329-1036x675.jpeg 1036w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923236400-1-e1778093455329-1024x667.jpeg 1024w, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1777923236400-1-e1778093455329-300x195.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1492px) 100vw, 1492px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Welcome Dinner Doane University</figcaption></figure> <p class="">Around the table, participants shared stories, tested ideas, and engaged difficult questions without easy answers. The group spanned ages, perspectives, and backgrounds, but converged around a shared commitment to community, to the next generation, and to the promise of education. We also turned to Willa Cather, one of Nebraska’s most enduring voices, who wrote in 1919:</p> <div class="wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p class="has-small-variant">“When education was as hard to get as that it took on the glamour of all unattainable things. Boys and girls thought about it and dreamed about it, believed that if they could only have it it would satisfy the very hunger of youth. I think that thirst for knowledge must have been partly a homesickness for older things and deeper associations, natural to warm-blooded young people who grow up in a new community, where the fields are naked and the houses small and crowded, and the struggle for existence is very hard. The bleakness all about them made them eager for the beauty of the human story. In those days the country boys wanted to read the Aeneid and the Odyssey; they had no desire to do shop work or to study stock-farming all day. They hadn&#8217;t left the home pig-pen to go to the college pig-pen, but to find something as different as possible—if it were only, like Professor Williston, to discover a three-eyed reptile of the carboniferous age. Some of them wanted to be scholars, and they were willing to pay everything that youth can give.&#8221;</p> <p class="has-small-variant">&#8211; Willa Cather, &#8220;The Education You Have to Fight For,&#8221; <em>The Red Cross Magazine</em>, 14 (October 1919): 54-55, 68-70.</p> </blockquote> </blockquote> </div> <p class="">Her words still resonate. They remind us that education is not only about utility, but about aspiration, identity, and the search for meaning. Crete and Doane are doing that work with deep care. It was a privilege for the Aspen Institute to be part of it.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="alignfull cta has-primary-background-color has-background"><div class="cta__layout"> <div class="cta__content"> <h2 class="wp-block-heading has-h4-variant" id="h-sign-up-for-our-mailing-list">Sign up for our <br>Mailing List</h2> <p class="">Stay engaged with the Alliance for Social Trust and learn more about upcoming initiatives, resources, and opportunities to collaborate. </p> </div> <div class="wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex"> <div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link wp-element-button" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/alliance-for-social-trust-mailing-list-sign-up-form/">Sign up<span class="wp-block-button__effect"></span></a></div> </div> </div></div> <div class="wp-block-group alignfull has-primary-wash-background-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--medium);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--medium)"> <div class="card-slider alignfull has-grid-spacing-small"><div class="card-slider__nav"> <h2 class="wp-block-heading has-h4-variant" id="h-related-posts">Related Posts</h2> <button type="button" class="card-slider__go card-slider__go--back" aria-label="Previous"> <svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-arrow-left" role="img" focusable="false" height="0" width="0"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-arrow-left"/></svg> </button> <button type="button" class="card-slider__go card-slider__go--forward" aria-label="Next"> <svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-arrow-right" role="img" focusable="false" height="0" width="0"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-arrow-right"/></svg> </button> </div> <div class="card-slider__content"><div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/resources-curated-for-your-organization/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="640" height="360" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Feature-1-JQCE.png" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="Resources Curated for Your Organization" style="object-position: 50% 50%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Blog Posts</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/resources-curated-for-your-organization/">Resources Curated for Your Organization</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">At the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, we believe that every US job should be–and can be–a good job. 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Classrooms to Global Futures: Rethinking Education for a Connected World</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">Young people are already navigating a connected, complex, and global world, but the systems designed to prepare them haven’t kept pace. </div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="204114" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>May 6, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/benjamin-lewis/">Benjamin Lewis</a></li><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/kaya-henderson/">Kaya Henderson</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> <div 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href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/making-the-economy-work-for-women-lessons-heather-mcculloch/" tabindex="-1"> <div class="dyn-card__image-placeholder"> <span class="a11y">Placeholder</span> </div> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Blog Posts</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/making-the-economy-work-for-women-lessons-heather-mcculloch/">Making the Economy Work for Women: Lessons on Economic Equity with Heather McCulloch</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">Senior fellow Heather McCulloch reflects on four years of leading the Women in the Economy project with Aspen FSP.</div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="199921" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>May 1, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/heather-mcculloch/">Heather McCulloch</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/explore-our-job-quality-topic-guides/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="640" height="360" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Feature-1-JQCE.png" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="Explore our Job Quality Topic Guides" style="object-position: 50% 50%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Blog Posts</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/explore-our-job-quality-topic-guides/">Explore our Job Quality Topic Guides</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">At the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, we believe that every US job should be–and can be–a good job. But for too many workers, that is far from reality. That is why we launched the Job Quality Center of Excellence. </div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="200757" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>May 1, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/merrit-stuven/">Merrit Stüven</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card"> <div class="dyn-card__wrap"> <div class="dyn-card__media"> <figure class="dyn-card__image"> <a class="dyn-card__image-link" href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/trump-iras-retirement-executive-order/" tabindex="-1"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Aspen-Leadership-Forum-Retirement-Savings-2026_527_web-1500x1000.png" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="A wideshot of a room with several tables and dozens of people, watching a presentation at the front of the room." style="object-position: 50% 50%" /> </a> </figure> <div class="dyn-card__label"> <span class="has-meta-variant">Blog Posts</span> </div> </div> <div class="dyn-card__content"> <h2 class="dyn-card__title has-h5-variant"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/trump-iras-retirement-executive-order/">Trump IRAs Are Coming. Let’s Make Them Work for Those Who Need Them Most.</a></h2><div class="dyn-card__excerpt">President Trump has just signed an executive order designed to expand retirement savings access. Here&#8217;s what this news means for low-income savers.</div><p class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__date"><button class="favorite" data-id="200021" data-state="" title="Favorites are not currently available" disabled><span class="favorite__on">Unfavorite</span><span class="favorite__off">Favorite</span><svg class="svg svg--svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark" role="img" focusable="false" height="15" width="11"><use xlink:href="#svg-assets-svg-icon-bookmark"/></svg></button><time>May 1, 2026</time></p><ul class="dyn-card__meta dyn-card__people"><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/karen-andres/">Karen Biddle Andres</a></li><li class="dyn-card__person"><a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/people/kc-boas/">KC Boas</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p>The post <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/what-does-it-mean-to-be-educated/">What Does It Mean To Be Educated?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org">Aspen Institute</a>.</p>