Time to rethink college

Is training to become a master auto mechanic, paramedic, or skilled electrician as valuable to society as a feminist-studies curriculum? Victor Davis Hanson writes that in our colleges today

There are far too many special studies courses and trendy majors — and far too few liberal-arts surveys of literature, history, art, music, math, and science that for centuries were the sole hallowed methods of instilling knowledge.

Administrators should decide whether they see students as mature, independent adults who handle life’s vicissitudes with courage and without need for restrictions on free expression. Or should students remain perennial weepy adolescents, requiring constant sheltering, solicitousness, and self-esteem building?

The now-predictable ideology of college graduation speakers should instead be a mystery. Students should not be able to guess the politics of their college president. Ideally, they might encounter as many Christians as atheists, as many reactionaries as socialists, or as many tea partyers as Occupy Wall Street protestors, reflecting the normal divisions of society at large.

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Day care more costly than college tuition!

Much is being written about the high cost of college tuition. But do you know what is even more costly? Day care for young children!

A report by Child Care Aware of America found last fall that the annual cost of day care for an infant exceeds the average cost of in-state tuition and fees at public colleges in 31 states.

The biggest gap is in New York, where day care will set you back nearly $15,000 a year but in-state college tuition averages just $6,500 — a difference of more than $8,000.

Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts and Oregon also have large gaps.

Day care for Colorado infants and kids 4 and younger is the fourth most costly in the U.S., averaging $12,735 annually for babies and $9,619 for preschoolers, while the average cost of tuition and fees at a public college average $8,416.

Read more here.