University

One of my few regrets in life is that I did not go to University.  I left school when I was still 16 and had to make my way in the world - not too successfully to begin with either.  But that was the way back then in the mid-fifties.  You didn't go on to further education unless you were destined for one of the finer professions, or a life in academia.  And back in the UK the only real universities to be considered were still Oxford and Cambridge - maybe London!  And there was absolutely no chance of going there with my scholastic results.

I recently had to do a piece on Redlands University here in Southern California.  It's a fine place and will set you or your parents back about $40,000 a year for the priviledge of attending for the obligatory three-year degree.
It seems today that every Tom, Dick and Harry's town has a college.  Also as nearly everybody seems to go to "school" I do wonder if it's been debased.  A degree from Harvard, Yale or Princeton I'm sure still resonates with prospective employers, but if you've got some three letter job from the Community College of Blythe is it really of much value?
I wonder if it's not best to learn a trade and then branch out on your own, assuming such behaviour is still tolerated by our burgeoning bureaucracy.  Let's face it, what sort of satisfaction is there in spending three years, acquiring some degree in human relationships then having to be chained to a desk fighting up the corporate ladder.  It seems a pretty miserable life to me.  Nonetheless, I would have loved to do a stint in a good university.