Still thinking about rereading Max Shulman. His description of college in 1940 exactly matches college today and college in 1500. Perfect constant for 500 years.
There’s one important exception.
Shulman was a bestselling author, which means he was resonating with what people already knew. When an old book or show uses a word or concept that seems unfamiliar now, you can be SURE it was familiar to the audience back then.
Repeating the curriculum for a well-rounded-out education:
The admissions officer then tells our hero a story about the necessity of college.
Condensed: When I was young I planned my life around college. My best friend skipped college, took a job and then owned his business. Later I went to visit him in his 20-room mansion. After eating a million-dollar meal I asked him: Who was the eighth avatar of Vishnu? How many wheels does a fiacre have? And he COULDN’T ANSWER THE QUESTIONS!
Our young hero immediately absorbs the point, then the admissions officer continues: But you need to beware of a pitfall! Some people abuse and misuse college by taking lowly peasant courses like medicine and engineering. They can only perform mindless subhuman jobs like building bridges and saving lives. Don’t be like them!!!!
The permanent nature of college was familiar in 1940 and familiar now. It was NOT familiar in the 50s and 60s when I was in school. Everyone “knew” that college was necessary to make a living. Only stinky hillbillies went to work without college.
Controlled experiment, on/off/on. Common knowledge in 1940, alien for several decades, common knowledge again now. What happened during the off period? Intentional propaganda by Deepstate started immediately after WW2. Deepstate needed a longer education to cultivate the new orthodoxy, so we needed to HATE and DISDAIN heretics who skipped the indoctrination.
Now we’re peeling off the propaganda and returning to the old norm when everyone understood the purpose of education.
