Pay $100k a Year to Learn to Be Curious?
Like too many institutions of higher education Syracuse University bills at about $100k a year for the four years of undergraduate learning. One of the major benefits of that, it is claimed, is creating and nurturing curiosity. For example, an op-ed in The New York Times states: " ...my undergrads ... I expect, will approach the material with energetic curiosity. They always do." The gigantic elephant in the room on that one is this: Why is that necessary? Observe any toddler in a store or on the playground and it's obvious that human beings are inherently quite curious. Even annoyingly so. Obviously, though, many will lose it along the way to being 18 years old. And defenders of the university will feature that pursuit as a main item on the menu. We have to ask, of course, why curiosity is so easily erased as the human matures. But, equally important to look at is the wealth-creation reality that some hold on to the craving to explore. Mark Zu...