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Docta Ignorantia XLVII Forward ... But to College? I don't think so. I think it's a waste of time. I think it's endangering the children we have just spent time, money and energy shielding from danger. And I am certain it isn't going to give them any advantage in the job market. Why? Just as elementary and secondary schools are not now what they were when we went through them, neither are colleges or universities. And the job market is nothing like what it was. We point children towards college and university for two reasons: first, a liberal arts education; second, social/professional contacts (spouse and career). Today, the first reason is absolutely invalid while the second one is only conditionally valid. College and university teachers are no better personally or professionally than elementary and secondary teachers are. At most institutions, they are worse. If you don't believe that, subscribe to professional lists on the Internet and observe the traffic. A liberal arts education is no more possible at colleges or universities today than a basic one is at elementary and secondary schools. Genuinely useful social/professional contacts are available only at Ivy League-type schools, where they derive from family and/or prep school affiliation. If you do not have that background, your child will not gain it by attending an Ivy League-type institution. Bill and Hillary Clinton are examples of that truism. Your child will gain genuinely useful social/professional contacts by working very hard and very well to fulfill their own inner necessity. "Seek ye first ...." We should point children towards vocational training. This means far more than auto mechanics and short-order cooking. It means the United States military academies. It means engineering and theological schools. It means police and fire academies. It means dance and music schools. It means business and medical schools. It means almost anything except the standard four-year college curriculum. Avoid that as you would the plague. I am serious. Also, let's stop this practice of saddling our children with debt just as they emerge to live their adult lives. It is an immoral thing we are doing to them, and they know that it is. Pay their tab or let them live within their means. Any parent who allows their child to emerge from post-secondary education saddled with debt is selfish and a cheat. They have thrown the child on their head at the last possible moment, showing the world that all along from the beginning they never really cared. My summary is this: (1) keep the little nippers out of liberal arts education; (2) point them towards vocational education; (3) pay for their education right through to the end. I might add (especially for Washington state residents, who have the glorious opportunity): start their vocational education at age 16. Then, when their peers are wasting time in college and the bars, they already will be building professional and financial bases to take them far ahead in the game of life. And they won't be in the line for a "refocus" every five years by a newbie aiming to make a mark.
Adwaitha Hermitage
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