When Cincinnati rioted and the Democratic city government did little to halt the violence, many a person wished Rhodes was still around. He was the type that would have marched the riot police into the city himself.

I don’t believe a college education is bad, but I do believe that a good liberal arts education shouldn’t START in college. For me, the first two years of college was basically the last two years of high school, except with more beer and sex. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I could have just spent a lot more time drinking without having a college loan to pay off.

I’ve had that same conversation with equally moronic people. If you truly view these kids as resorting to a “last resort” why wouldn’t you be thrilled at the greatness of the last resort the U.S. military is? What better institution is there to turn young men and women into assets to society?

RES… that is music to my ears.

Your second comment addresses the point I was attempting to make about the long-term costs of keeping prices artificially low. Had the universities imposed tuition prices more in line with their actual costs they would not now be having to boost tuition so drastically (assuming they hadn’t simply pissed away the extra funds in higher operating costs for things like climbing walls or large screen plasma televisions in dorm common rooms … or free beer at student festivities.)

The difference between students as customers and students spending their own monies is that in the latter case students are concerned about value received. CC students are more typically buying knowledge than “GPS and a degree.” I share your view about too many students using college as an opportunity to delay maturing and assuming responsibility for their lives (aka: living off mommy & daddy without having to explain where you’ve been and what you’re doing coming in at that hour in that condition.) I also believe student course evaluations are over emphasized, as if a student’s opinion about what constitutes an appropriate course load is informed.

The other modification I would do (Lord help me) is get rid of about half our universities. A lot of the students have no interest in or capability to pursue “the life of the mind” and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. If our high schools (and by that I mean parents) were doing their jobs then two years at a CC to learn a trade or pick up practical training would be enough for most people to earn a living and maybe decide if they wanted to pursue a higher education.