Wednesday, March 07, 2012

College Insanity

I swear that this country is going insane with regards to a college education.  Now, we have high school freshmen preparing for college admission. Some schools even have seventh- and eighth-graders visiting college campuses.  Most of the schools pushing this are for-profit schools.  One of these advocates, who has been head of school at Dalton and the School at Columbia (and should know better), advances the idea that 'an early start  allows students to focus on an area of mastery — a critical tenet of the Avenues curriculum — and showcase that for colleges.' I don't know about you but I didn't find out what I wanted to do with my life until I was in my late 20s and I don't think that I'm that unique in this regard.

I know that there are people who select a preschool with a particular college in mind.  For 'legacy' students this may de rigeur, for most of the rest it's bizarre behavior that I don't think is good for the child or the parents.

Focusing just about all of the four years of high school on getting into college is truly ridiculous.  Life is more than going to school; most of the principles by which we run our lives are learned by living our lives fully, not focusing solely on formal education.

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