Contrast Ben's experience beautifully described here to our swaddled university students who shudder at violent and grievous 'microaggressions' requiring a swift retreat into their womb-like safe space. There they catch their breath enough to take their stress pill and gather the courage to face the cruel world which may yet drop another triggering event demanding another retreat... Sheesh!
A fascinating read - and the Author was lucky to have someone come out and look for him when he went on his jaunt into the desert.
I went through a similar experience when I was his age: I was immersed in a small group of people from assorted backgrounds and ethnicities and we learned how to get along together and form teams, all while working hard day and night. We called it "the United States Marine Corps" and it worked out well for us then and for our futures - those of us who lived through it.
Imagine that a college turning a boy into a man. Rather then just an even bigger boy.
That being said they are mixing the blue collar and academic worlds in an interesting way. I don’t know how many blue collar folks read Shakespeare but they could benefit from it.
I am actually encouraged that there remains some hope for the future of our nation, our world and humanity in general. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and knowledge. It was truly uplifting.
"His mother knew at once what he meant: he meant he was going to have a nervous breakdown. She did not say a word. She did not say that this was precisely what she could have told him what would happen. When people think they are smart -- even when they are smart -- there is nothing anybody else can say to make them see things straight, and with Asbury, the trouble was that in addition to being smart, he had an artistic temperament. She did not know where he had got it from because his father, who was a lawyer and businessman and farmer and politician all rolled into one, had certainly had his feet on the ground; and she had certainly always had hers on it. She had managed after he died to get the two of them through college and beyond; but she had observed that the more education they got, the less they could do. Their father had gone to a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade and he could do anything."
One should accept a good idea no matter where it comes from and one of the things I've always thought that Mao got right was his insight that overly abstract theoretical academics should be driven into the fields to learn something by doing real work.
Very good piece, I enjoyed it a lot.
What's not so much the opposite of Harvard?... University of Chicago.
Contrast Ben's experience beautifully described here to our swaddled university students who shudder at violent and grievous 'microaggressions' requiring a swift retreat into their womb-like safe space. There they catch their breath enough to take their stress pill and gather the courage to face the cruel world which may yet drop another triggering event demanding another retreat... Sheesh!
Sounds a great place and pleased to see from their website that citizenship and nationality are irrelevant.
Just sad that it also says "All students traveling to campus for their interviews will need to have a COVID vaccination."
I'm sending this column to my 17-year-old daughter right now.
A fascinating read - and the Author was lucky to have someone come out and look for him when he went on his jaunt into the desert.
I went through a similar experience when I was his age: I was immersed in a small group of people from assorted backgrounds and ethnicities and we learned how to get along together and form teams, all while working hard day and night. We called it "the United States Marine Corps" and it worked out well for us then and for our futures - those of us who lived through it.
Impressive.
Fascinating article - what a vastly different experience than attending a pretentious Ivy League school
Imagine that a college turning a boy into a man. Rather then just an even bigger boy.
That being said they are mixing the blue collar and academic worlds in an interesting way. I don’t know how many blue collar folks read Shakespeare but they could benefit from it.
I misquoted it should have been "what fools 'these mortals be'"
and I envy his experience
What fools this mortals be
I am actually encouraged that there remains some hope for the future of our nation, our world and humanity in general. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and knowledge. It was truly uplifting.
"His mother knew at once what he meant: he meant he was going to have a nervous breakdown. She did not say a word. She did not say that this was precisely what she could have told him what would happen. When people think they are smart -- even when they are smart -- there is nothing anybody else can say to make them see things straight, and with Asbury, the trouble was that in addition to being smart, he had an artistic temperament. She did not know where he had got it from because his father, who was a lawyer and businessman and farmer and politician all rolled into one, had certainly had his feet on the ground; and she had certainly always had hers on it. She had managed after he died to get the two of them through college and beyond; but she had observed that the more education they got, the less they could do. Their father had gone to a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade and he could do anything."
- Flannery O'Connor, "The Enduring Chill"
Good gracious, that was amazing to read. Thank you.
One should accept a good idea no matter where it comes from and one of the things I've always thought that Mao got right was his insight that overly abstract theoretical academics should be driven into the fields to learn something by doing real work.
Yeah, navel gazing too much isn’t good for honest self assessment.
TFP has a knack for finding incredible young writers. These are the kind of young people that bring hope.