Last night I had a horrible nightmare. I dreamt that someone
woke me up and told me they were going to charge $2,100 to my
credit card. They needed to purchase a new laptop, printer and
assorted equipment. Not to worry, I would be getting a rebate of
several hundred dollars.
Upon awakening this morning, I came to understand that this was
no nightmare. My son and wife were up late purchasing a new laptop
(or was it a MacBook?), on line, as required by the very fine state
college he will be attending in the fall. There were also some
nifty extras which, for a song, came with the package deal.
My wife had come into our bedroom where I was already sound
asleep, woke me up, and wanted to make sure I was OK with this
purchase.
What was I going to say? In a deep sleep, barely conscious, I
said the only thing a devoted father and loving husband could say
in the circumstances: "How much?" After listening to my wife's
assurances that my son, the youngest of my children, really, really
needed, not just the computer, but the extra equipment at such a
great price, I think I mumbled something like, "Well, in that
case...."
The purchase was put through immediately.
THE TELLING OF THIS TALE may make it sound as if my wife and son
were taking advantage of me. In fairness, we had talked about this
purchase before -- at a substantially cheaper price, sans
all the bells and whistles. My son had to work late at the local
restaurant where he is trying to pay for some of his education, and
I leave the house fairly early in the morning for work. A deadline
to place the order was rapidly approaching. Thus, this nightmarish
episode, in what seemed like the middle of the night, actually took
place before midnight. Still, it was a jarring experience.
I recall touring a Big Ten campus with my daughter, our oldest
child, fifteen years ago. The student guide bragged that the
university had ample computer labs for which a student only need
purchase a single computer disk to completely cover her Internet
and word processing needs for basically nothing.
Another guide described an all-women residence hall on this
campus as an "alternative" living arrangement. My daughter took a
pass on that school.
Four years later she went to a law school that insisted on every
student getting a laptop at their own expense. Based on my recent
experience as an adjunct professor of law at a nearby law school,
this allows law students to stay in touch with Drudge, play
Solitaire, and e-mail their friends, spouses, and significant
others while maintaining a watchful eye on the professor in case he
starts to veer in their direction. Some do take notes, I think.
So in a decade and a half, we have come from buying a computer
disk for a pittance to having to buy a whizbang computer with
printer and special celestial death ray to assist students
in...well, what exactly? Surf the net during class? Bury a
professor in useless information without any coherent analysis or
contextual understanding? Crank out thousands of words for a paper
presumably graded by the number of pages?
ALL RIGHT, I AM BEING a bit of a crank, but that is my job as a
husband and father. Isn't anyone exerting any kind of cost controls
at these colleges and universities? Year after year, our
institutions of higher learning manage to jack up tuition, room,
board and fees at a pace that usually exceeds the rate of inflation
by a factor of at least two or three.
I recall the Norman Rockwell painting, "Breaking Home Ties" (1954) which depicts a
father, probably a farmer or rancher, sitting on the running board
of his old car, waiting at the train station with his son, their
faithful dog's head in the boy's lap. The son is heading off to
state university, as indicated by the decal on his precisely one
suitcase. He also had a few books as part of his kit.
Today you need to rent a mini-van to cart all your kid's stuff
off to college. And don't forget to bring the cell phone, rent the
refrigerator, and refresh the wardrobe.
Students are too young to be weighed down with all these
possessions, and parents too poor.
topics:
Education, Books, Law
