The Blog

2021-

2021-08-29 i
THE STATE OF THE DISUNION IX

The Collegiate Experience

Editor's Note:

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Hyperbole? I wish.

The modern American college, striving to be all things to all students, admitting the highly qualified as well as the totally unqualified, is no longer the ticket to the good life it was two to three generations ago. The scarcity premium that once gave a high value to a bachelor's degree, when only 10% of high school graduates attended college, no longer exists. For too many, the investment no longer pencils out. However, these diminishing returns are not yet discouraging attendance.

Robert Maynard Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1951, wrote, "Education is not to reform students or to amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, (and) inflame their intellects." While that sentiment might seem quaint and totally out-of-date to those born after the year 2000, it is still true.

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For example, college instruction was apparently wasted on this narcissist:

College is the way life should be: walkability, access to gyms and green spaces, libraries, community building, lenient substance laws, etc.

They’re mini-utopias that provide escape from declining society, but you must go into lifelong debt for that 4-year respite. Pure evil.

— Ara Hagopian @ara_hagopian August 28, 2021

There should be socialism, but only for people who are less attractive than I am.

— Ara Hagopian @ara_hagopian August 28, 2021

Just taught my first class of fiction-writing 101. My students are incredibly smart, creative, and funny. They have great insight.

I’m not as cynical as some others- I don’t think college is a “waste of time”. I think it can be a beautiful thing that enriches people’s lives.

— Ara Hagopian @ara_hagopian August 27, 2021

I think I might have a hidden talent for drinking. I’ve had like 15 shots and I only feel pleasantly buzzed lol

— Ara Hagopian @ara_hagopian August 21, 2021

Fidel Castro was a hero

— Ara Hagopian @ara_hagopian August 17, 2021

As was Patrice Lumumba

— Ara Hagopian @ara_hagopian August 17, 2021

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