Writing at Quillette, Peter Wood describes what he calls “The coming cultural collapse of American higher education." And he adds that most students say they go to college "to get a good job."
Regardless of what they tell opinion surveys, most students who go to college seek “the experience.” That’s what they will tell you if you actually listen.
The experience of college is that careless whole of meeting new people, attending football games, drinking to excess, falling under the spell of a charismatic professor, protesting injustices, meeting still more new people, having deep and meaningful late-night conversations, more parties, feeling you are part of something bigger than your high-school class, discovering life beyond your hometown, meeting yet more new people and forming what will be lasting friendships, falling in love, breaking up, reading some books, pursuing some internships, taking a semester abroad, feeling depressed, getting angry at oppressive structures, feeling smarter than the folks you went to school with, and thinking seriously about what you will do next, and refusing to think seriously about what you will do next.
As I read through that description I found myself nodding as I checked off many (but as Wood notes “not all”) of those experiences.
Wood believes it is likely, in the years ahead, fewer students will attend college as AI replaces many of the white collar jobs college grads prepared for. He may be correct, and if so, then I was lucky to enter college at the correct time, and subsequently benefit from an excellent market for budding business profs.
I doubt I was often viewed as “charismatic.” However, on an anonymous student evaluation, one Trekkie was kind enough to write of me “he has a mind like Spock.” This accolade I understood to be high praise.
