Education and the Young

More and more I am coming to the conclusion that much of education, higher/college education, is wasted on the young.  No, I'm not criticizing today's students.  I'm picking on me!

I've thought about this for a while, but it seemed to come to something more lucid when I was talking to a good friend and college mate last September.  We were talking about our college days--no, not our adventures and accomplishments on the athletic fields--our academic endeavors.  We were comparing, favorably, our experiences in the classroom--the reading loads, the mounds of writing, the rigor required, etc. Then he said something that nailed it.  "After about five years, it clicked.  I started to understand our education [at Amherst]."  Yes, that was it!  It was the same for me.  I did the work, well at least much of it, enough to pass with reasonable grades.  But I never quite understood where all that was taking me.

Like my good friend, it did finally begin to dawn on me.  I thought, originally, that it was teaching that finally led me to appreciate what I had been taught and how I had been taught.  But it was more maturity, I think, than anything.

I certainly agree with another classmate who asserted, "I could have (and should have) been a better student at Amherst."  He then added, "But I've never doubted that Amherst made me a far better student/thinker that I was before...."  Yes, that's it.

One other thing I've never doubted is the love of learning, the curiosity to know everything--or at least as much as I can--that was instilled in me at Amherst, by my professors, the work they assigned, and the atmosphere of the college.