Annie Holmquist | January 4, 2017
One of the first big education stories to hit headlines in 2017 was the announcement that New York state will be offering free college to its residents this fall. According to The Washington Post, this offer of governor Andrew Cuomo’s stems from the fact that college is now viewed as a necessity:
“‘College is a mandatory step if you really want to be a success,’ Cuomo said Tuesday at LaGuardia Community College in Queens. ‘And the way this society said we’re going to pay for high school because you need high school, this society should say we’re going to pay for college because you need college to be successful. And New York state is going to do something about it.”
It struck me that Governor Cuomo might benefit greatly from a little fable from 1904 by American author George Ade. The fable, entitled The One or Two Points of Difference Between Learning and Learning How, describes two schoolboys named Bradford and Otis.
Bored by lessons and eager to be working in the real world, Bradford scorns higher education and goes into business for himself, working his way up the ladder by his own common sense and elbow grease.
Otis, on the other hand, is convinced that education is the pathway to wealth:
https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/college-shouldnt-be-considered-only-option-success