Earlier this month, my wife and I attended a marvelous event in Kansas City which contained some very powerful educational food for thought.
William Jewell College hosted its Annual Achievement Day Dinner, and the featured speaker was Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, physician, assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University, Pulitzer Prize winning author – and excellent speaker.  Dr. Mukherjee won the Pulitzer Prize for his first book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. This book was also the basis for a Ken Burns PBS documentary, and helped place Dr. Mukherjee on Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people. His newest book The Gene: An Intimate History became a number one New York Times bestseller.
If you’re wondering how the topic of cancer relates to an educational column, read on.
In an oversimplified nutshell, Dr. Mukherjee spoke of how interdisciplinary the battle against cancer has become.  He spoke of how researchers need the help of so many others:  scholars from the information and technology sciences to help organize and do mappings for the overwhelming amounts of data collected; social scientists, as they examine the way patients interact with medicines and their own belief structures; linguists, since communication between cancer (and even other) cells often resembles a language; nurses, as they are often the crucial caregivers and inspiration for patients, and patients themselves, as they work with their doctors to exchange information.  He also included molecular biologists, chemists, and others.    It was (and is) a fascinating overview and perspective.
As he finished, Dr. Mukherjee noted that cancer is just one example of how the increasingly complex problems of today require more and more interdisciplinary approaches from so many fields. He spoke of how these various fields need to be populated with professionals who have been trained as critical thinkers and who can also see beyond their own areas of expertise. And, of course, how they need to be able to communicate meaningfully with each other to jointly attack problems.
Just as impressive, earlier in the evening, were the brief remarks from William Jewell’s new President, Dr. Elizabeth MacLeod Walls.  These remarks served as both an introduction of the speaker, and – as it turned out- a perfect segue to his remarks as well.  She spoke of the fact that Jewell has long been known for developing critical thinkers of its graduates.  She also highlighted Jewell’s new Brand Mission:  We are critical thinkers in community pursuing meaningful lives, a statement that says so much in so few words.  If you’ve read many of these columns, you’ll recognize some favorite themes dancing in and around that sentence.
The evening and the two sets of remarks combined to serve as an enlightening reminder of some of our higher, less esoteric, goals and values of our educational process, from kindergarten through college/university.  And these goals and values are not restricted to higher education parts of that process.
Critical thinking, interdisciplinary thinking, cross-pollination and fertilization, sharing of ideas, effective communication, tackling (and eventually solving) major problems, leading meaningful lives . . . such an inspiring list!  These things contribute to our growth as humans and citizens. And they contribute to our ability to help solve the problems of our own lives – and of society.   They are a grander part of becoming educated.