Hmm...Stop the presses!
Dog Bites Man!
Students Protest At Berkeley!
With the smell of burning sage and the occasional hint of weed in the air, an impassioned throng of students from the University of California’s Berkeley campus marched to Oakland (where the university system's headquarters are located) in opposition of budget cuts and tuition hikes they say are crippling one of the nation’s premier public institutions.
While the five-mile trek to Oakland proved largely peaceful, police arrested as many as 200 protesters once they reached freeways and tried to block them. The arrests mark the continuation of a what many describe as a troubling trend at the University of California, which has seen recent allegations of police brutality, racially motivated discord and an activist movement that at times appears intent on provoking law enforcement.
Thsi demonstration was part of a larger effort across the country yesterday, with protests reported in other locations. Berkeley, however, seems to have been the most vocal.
OS does not think another 'Those spoiled college kids' rant is in order. He has two of his own, neither of them spoiled, but both very cognizant that their opportunities have not come cheaply. They use Pell Grants, one has taken on significant loans, both work their patooties off. They don't talk of it often, but Dad hears the unease in their voices.
OS actually feels a bit of sympathy for the kids who went on their march in Berkeley yesterday. (The attempts to block the freeway, the windows smashed, etc., elicit no sympathy.)
They were raised in California, the land of milk and honey. Their folks likely went to UC, and prospered in their time. What could go wrong? Money grew on trees, and the state will always be there for the ed system. They were raised with that cultural assumption, which has proven to be fallacious. That's painful and angering to kids in late adolescence, which is what college students are. Their ethical world is black and white, and their cause is inherently just and true, just because it's their cause.
Had they been born five years earlier, they would not have even been aware of the gathering storm, as they busily did what college students do.
The cultural assumption was fallacious. And erroneous assumptions, if embraced, bring terrible consequences, in both individual lives and the wider world.
There is good news here, though. Some of these kids, in a more sober mood, will begin to read and think about what led to this day, and what it means. These kids will have the opportunity to embrace some healthier assumptions, and transmit them to their children.
Maybe, in 2030, we won't be reading accounts of undergraduates trashing college campuses because their tuition bills spiked unexpectedly.
In the meantime, allow OS to recommend a college that has avoided so many of the traps that so many other institutions have encountered.
It's not the only one, by any means, but provides a great template as the educational system begins to reorganize.
