Living in the past and thinking about today

"After seeing what has been going on at Columbia, Harvard, and so forth - here is my recommendation. Shut them down. They are a waste of space. At one time they were the treasure of the Ivy League. Today, they are as some call them - poison ivy."

I went to a "Big 10" University right in my back yard. Went there from 1973 to 1975 and graduated with a BS degree (my wife thought that was appropriate). What was college life like back then? Nothing like today. First off, it was much more affordable. Next, I never had a nut case professor who tried to make Marxists out of the class. There was no vendetta against Jewish students. Two of my best friends in upper division were Jewish. Young folk went to class, listened, studied, graduated as soon as they could, and then found employment. I was employed withing a week of graduation.

When I went to the "U", things were tranquil. Maybe not so much in the 60's. But that was not my worry back then - in the 1960's, I was serving my country. By the time I got out, Viet Nam was about done, and most of the young folks were focused on what they should be focused on - living the American dream.

Fast forward to today. Kids go to college not really knowing what they want to do. They major in something exotic, rather than something which is going to land them a job. They sign papers to go deeply into debt, without thinking how to repay this enormous debt. The thought of maybe doing PSEO while in high school and then doing their first two years in a community college was absolutely abhorrent. Many would much prefer going to a private four-year school and majoring in Art History, Woman's Studies, or World Without Genocide. 

While in school, they might end up with a professor like Ward Churchill (remember him?). If so, they become radicalized. They skip class to protest. Based on a class they took on Gender Studies, they pick a new pronoun. No worry about grades - the college has decided grades are racist, so everybody gets a "participation degree". The college does not care how long you stay there, so long as you keep paying their sky-high tuition with student loan money. After six or seven years, they graduate with a four-year degree, broke, deeply in debt, and are proud owners of a degree which will never get them a decent job.

After seeing what has been going on at Columbia, Harvard, and so forth - here is my recommendation. Shut them down. They are a waste of space. At one time they were the treasure of the Ivy League. Today, they are as some call them - poison ivy.

Mike Rowe might be right. For many, forget about college these days. That season might be over for a while. Focus on the trades. Many good paying jobs are just waiting to be filled out there. But what about the sciences? We still need people to get degrees which will advance society. True. But those schools need to go into the "way back" machine so they can be like the colleges of the 1970's. Why? Those colleges worked - today's colleges, not so much.