Tea at Trianon: College: Is It Worth It?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

College: Is It Worth It?

From Fix the Family:

Let’s slow things down and sit with our kids and give them a realistic perspective of real life and the impact of the decisions they are about to make. Let’s walk through it with them beyond the 4-year degree and what the next steps are. Let’s give them the real picture of what day-to-day work life is and the issues of having children while working and the stresses to mothers of dropping their infants off at daycare for total strangers to raise. Let’s make sure that our sons and daughters realize the impact of this to husbands, wives, and children. Is the high school counselor doing this? How about the college advisors? Or are they just painting a rosy picture of how fantastic a career the kids are going to have. Certainly, some occupations do require a degree. (Read more.)