Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman
It’s not too early in the semester to prepare for spring break (as you know, college freshmen always plan ahead). At this point I’m leaning toward Minnesota. They know how to party. Someone will ask me to take my clothes off as soon as I get there.
You won’t see a lot of DWMs walking the halls here. Those darlings of West-Civ literature, philosophy and human affairs are hiding out in the English, history and philosophy departments. They’ve taken a real hit over these four decades and it’s partly their own fault. They insist on using dated syntax, they don’t show up for sensitivity training.
During the Decade When Everything Changed, women, ethnic groups, the conquered and exploited, and the merely forgotten rose up in unison to ask the question, “What are we, chopped liver?” The answer is not anymore, at least not in the world of higher education.
You can still study the old white dead guys but you have to look carefully to find them. They may be wearing disguises.
Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman
These kids are smarter than me. Much smarter. There’s been a large and measurable rise in IQ scores over the past half century—if the Flynn effect is to be believed. This generation grew up in a world that manages and digests knowledge in more productive ways.
So you can imagine how wapperjawed I was when a bright young student yelled for the attention of her professor using only his last name. Kimberly, nooooooo!
Maybe book smarts aren’t enough. Maybe a gap year spent in any kind of employment involving cooking fat would helpful.
Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman
This hallway is a lovers lane.
Many mornings before classes, young couples sit on couches in the nooks that stretch down the hallway. There’s just enough room for two people. There is an illusion of privacy.
While working with the immigrant parents of kids like these, I’ve learned that their cultures have very different ideas about courtship and marriage. It’s possible that the half hour or so young people steal together here is one of the few private moments they enjoy without supervision.
Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman
There are kids here who spent years rushing home from high school before the evenings turned dangerous. Parents got home too late for schoolwork. They’ve never been to Awards Night.
They look through a fence built around them and wonder if life on the other side is only for kids richer and luckier than them.
Community colleges provide acetylene and oxygen, and when students get the mixture just right, they burn through metal. Tuition is relatively inexpensive by 4-year college standards. With hard work and luck, they’ll finally transfer to a university. They’ll need those goggles every step of the way.
