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Show Diploma Cant Think. i An alumnus of the University of Nebraska writes to the tor of that institution's graduate paper complaining that wasted four years of his life at the university because he 8 taught things "of no earthly use." His instructors, he ,-s, crammed his mind full of philosophy, historj', literature - d so on but did not give him anything that would help him et on in the world." As a result, eight months after grad-' grad-' tion he finds himself holding down a poorly paying job and pairing of getting a better one. Obviously, his criticism is not so much an assault on the liversity of Nebraska itself as it is an assault on the aver-3 aver-3 American university. It voices a complaint that is often ard; that university courses are not "practical" enough. v. That takes us back to the old, old question: what is a diversity for? If it is supposed to be a place where the son J a street cleaner or a motorman or a banker or a sea captain 'ji go and be fitted to hold down a $10,000 a year job after graduates then, without question, our universities are lures. But if it is supposed to be a place where a young man i go and be taught how to think how to understand life 1 its problems, how to adjust himself to the world about . n, how to be tolerant instead of prejudiced, how to appre- I te beauty and truth ; well, that is a different thing. J Our universities may be performing that job inadequate- II But the fact that a university graduate can't get a good , . right off the bat doesn't prove it. One fears that the : braska alumnus has missed the point entirely. v Anyone who thinks that a university training is going , enable him to clip coupons the rest of his life is in for a ' ;. The whole idea of a university is something entirely ferent. |