“They do not go to university to acquire culture , but to get a job (OUCH!!! Isn’t that what college is all about?), and when they have got one, scamp it. They have no manners, and are woefully unable to deal with any predicament. Their idea of a celebration is to go into a public house and drink six beers. They are mean, malicious and envious. They will write anonymous letters to harass a fellow undergraduate and listen into a telephone conversation that is no business of theirs. Charity, kindness, generosity are qualities which they hold in contempt. They are scum.
They will in due course leave the university. Some will doubtless sink back, perhaps with relief, into the modest class from which they emerged; some will take to drink, some to crime, and go to prison. Other will become schoolmasters and form the young, or journalists and mould public opinion. A few will go into Parliament, become Cabinet Ministers and rule the country. Look on myself as fortunate that I shall not live to see it.”
Somerset Maugham
Somerset Maugham was writing in the early 60’s. What an appalling snob! What has this comment of his to do with today? Unfortunately, a lot. Living close by a (very reputable) university I overhear snatches of conversation, and get the impression that the kids are there not to learn to think, not to broaden the mind, not to be well-informed generalists, but to “get a good job”. That’s it. A good job.
Well, a good job is a good job, and we all need those. But does everything have to do with money? Why isn’t learning wonderful for its own sake? Why are we prostituting ourselves before the altar of capitalism, conformism, and mediocrity? Why is the standard of general knowledge so poor that no one any more realizes it is abysmal, because the adults and teachers never learned any either.
Amazing. I was going to ask in the “Comment” to what or whom is Maugham referring? The 1960s! That means they were children born in the 1940s. What was with their parents that the children turned out so? What did he mean by “the modest class” from which the students came?
Walking by these students who attend “very reputable” universities I always wonder: what do their parents do that they can afford these almost criminal costs it takes to put a child through college these days.
He was protesting the huge expansion in the number of British universities, and, as he saw it, the wrong-headed motivations of the people attending them. Until the 1960 in Britain there were few uniersities, and omly 4% of the young population attended them. They were very exclusive. What has survived is a very pernicious idea of waht university education is for. To that extent I agree with Somerset Maugham: young people here and in the US are inclined to treat further educations etablishments as training camps for the best jobs. I suspect that if you raised this point with most people they would look at you in total incomprehension – – well what else are they there for?
As for cost, this has to be part of the process of creating a new and exclusive class structure, in my opinion.