Youth

In the admissions business, the fall semester is truly the "busy" time. In the month of October alone I will encounter multiple hundreds of high school students. Perhaps you've heard of this creature. They were born during (or after) the First Gulf War. They hardly remember a world sans internet. If those who have (unfortunately) built a career in "studying" them are to believed, they believe that they are the most special of all special things, and are fully capable of changing the world. Most puzzlingly, they think that skinny jeans make a person look good, rather than the victim of a tragic hay-baling accident the took much of their lower leg.

Regardless, the high school student - my stock and trade - are an impractical bunch. Yes, I realize expecting otherwise would be foolish, much like assuming that the basic dairy cow possesses algebra skills. They believe that bigger and more expensive = better. They believe that Billy Ray Cyrus is capable of spawning talented musicians. They believe that law school is a strong career choice when that hasn't been true in more than 2 decades. They feel that even though paper journalism is in a death spiral, there will still be a job for them when they graduate. Most importantly, they feel that their 2.6 gpa is the product of their school being "more difficult" than others and that their "score" of 25 on the "practice" ACT means that they'll "earn" at least a 30 on the "real" one. You know, when they actually "try."

Knowing this you can imagine my surprise on Friday, when a student at Lincoln College Prep School became visibly angry upon viewing our list of majors. This student is, for descriptive purposes, an African-American female who - to paraphrase Oscar Wilde - was "young enough to know everything." She railed at me: "what will a somebody do with a Sociology-Anthropology major, other than teach Sociology and Anthropology? What the hell is a Russian major? This is some bullshit right here. I'm angry. I'm done. I'm not going to this school. You people are teaching some useless shit."

This is the juncture where we need to go on a little side trip into the Maddog's personality - he's not trained in what the scientists would call "conflict resolution." I'm not the type to blow sunshine up a person's ass, especially someone spewing arguments with the logic and fervor of a common household blender. Truth be told, I'm kind of a dick. And by kind of I mean I am. I didn't fool myself that mentioning instances of people growing wealthy and successful to a level beyond her wildest dreams, all the while having studied an unexpected subject in college, would actually do any good. There is a point, and I'm confident that we all have it, when a person justs doesn't give a fuck about logic or evidence anymore. This little lady was at that point - somehow miraculous segueing directly to it from diatribe about one of her teachers (ironically a flamboyantly gay acquaintance of mine from college). Given my druthers, I'd much rather have told her that a liberal arts major at my university, no matter how detached from the real world, would have trained her not to be a god-damned idiot. And that would have been a solid step up from her current state. Obviously, I couldn't do that. Instead, I told her that she needed to do what made her happy, whatever that was. Patronizing? To be sure, but I don't make it a practice to poke the bear, esp. when the bear has an irrational conviction that it is right.

Yeah, I could see her point. I think I can confidently say that most history majors don't get rich or cure infectious diseases. But why get all riled up? Her career goal? Dental hygenist. I suppose that's noble enough. But mankind managed to avoid extinction for thousands upon thousands of years without them. With proper care, nobody would ever need one, and it's not exactly a field that can look down upon all others. I suppose I could applaud her for being passionate, for having convictions as such. I did wish her the best of luck, whether I meant it or not.