Does anyone else but me perceive here a terrible insult to the notion of higher education? These two girls seem to invoke an old joke about going to college to obtain an “Mrs.” degree. Higher educational institutions are not finishing schools for debutantes. They are not a place for romantic entertainment. Perhaps education and training should revert to discrete specialized training institutions for technical skills in product assembly, construction, agriculture, or teaching, or professional skills in engineering, law, medicine, psychiatry/psychology, sciences, educational curricular development, or similarly intensive skills. I should not neglect the specialized training for careers in arts, history, political analysis, writing, entertainment performance and content development, and the like. Nor, for that matter, religious community support. One should not enter such institutions except to pursue a practical professional career, after having determined aptitude, qualifications and motivation to do so. Much more emphasis ought to be given to testing before offering guidance to individuals about initial pursuit of a career or a later change of career. In any case, neither pottery nor poetry represent career skills. They have a different function in the complex intellectual environment of an advanced civilization.
Does anyone else but me perceive here a terrible insult to the notion of higher education? These two girls seem to invoke an old joke about going to college to obtain an “Mrs.” degree. Higher educational institutions are not finishing schools for debutantes. They are not a place for romantic entertainment. Perhaps education and training should revert to discrete specialized training institutions for technical skills in product assembly, construction, agriculture, or teaching, or professional skills in engineering, law, medicine, psychiatry/psychology, sciences, educational curricular development, or similarly intensive skills. I should not neglect the specialized training for careers in arts, history, political analysis, writing, entertainment performance and content development, and the like. Nor, for that matter, religious community support. One should not enter such institutions except to pursue a practical professional career, after having determined aptitude, qualifications and motivation to do so. Much more emphasis ought to be given to testing before offering guidance to individuals about initial pursuit of a career or a later change of career. In any case, neither pottery nor poetry represent career skills. They have a different function in the complex intellectual environment of an advanced civilization.