"C's get degrees"

“Intelligent fools
PhD's in illusion
Masters of mass confusion
Bachelors in past illusion”
--Lauryn Hill, “Freedom Time”

This weekend while visiting Cliff in Columbia, I was afflicted by a cold. As I stood in line at the local Wal-Mart to purchase green tea and chicken soup, I overheard the following conversation between two coeds in front of me:

Girl 1: My parents are really pissed off at me because my phone bill was so bad.
Girl 2: What did they say?
1: They were all, “Why do you have to text so much?” And I’m like, “I thought we had unlimited,” and they were all, “Well, now we do.”
2: Huh.
1: Yeah. They were like, “Why don’t you just call the person?”
2: *Scoffing* It’s not like you can always talk to people.
1: I know. It’s like, what am I supposed to do while I’m in class?

There is something hopelessly wrong with “higher education” in America. I’d say the majority of American college students have little to no appreciation for learning. Universities originated in ancient monastic settlements like Ireland’s Clonmacnoise where scholars devoted their very lives to the preservation of knowledge. Those men paid dearly for the opportunity to learn, and in turn saved civilization from the Dark Ages. The students of today seem more interested in draining their parents’ bank accounts for an education they refuse to ingest, imbibing instead in all manner of frivolities.

With college tuition ever on the rise, it’s a wonder some people choose to invest in that which they don’t take seriously. It’s not like my own college years were characterized by excessive diligence, but while I was enrolled I understood that the reason I was there was primarily to learn. I wonder at the circus academia has become as I pine for a time when degrees actually meant something.