I agree - I particularly liked the close:
In a sense, that is the most unpalatable message of her book, the one that has caused all the anguish: it�s an unwelcome reminder (how can we keep forgetting this?) that the world really doesn�t lie before us like a land of dreams. At best�at the very best�it can only offer us choices between two good things, and as we grasp at one, we lose the other forever.
Ohhhhhh-- I like that, too.
Something that every person with multipotentiality
struggles mightily with during their growing up process.
(Starting to see some signs of this with DD, who is realizing that "particle physics" may not go with "hot-shot attorney" very well as a moonlighting gig.
)
There's a phrase for this:
Opportunity Cost. I definitely think that some colleges that worry about their rating in USN&WR and the like have lost sight of what true "quality" means in students. It isn't about the students you accept. It's about the
graduates that you produce-- they'd better be educated beyond the point of "job training" if you're a university, and they had better be a credit to your institution. Not all optimally intelligent, compliant authority-pleasers are going to be a credit to you-- particularly not when they need to be inventive and daring.
Higher ed needs to figure this out pretty soon.
