Not to copy James, but his post is a great segue into something I found, also from the Harvard Crimson’s online version. Apparently a recently spate of campus robberies has brought some of the Ivy’s sheltered students face to face with “the real world“.

Herz-Rohipe’s article talked about two armed robberies that happened on Harvard’s campus recently. One of the victims, when confronted with the robbers, said “I don’t have time for this”. The author addressed what he thought the cause of this was, the fact that we have been brought up to think a certain way since kindergarten “not to hit and to use [our] words”. He continues “We made it to Harvard, in part, because we internalized this lesson particularly well—we use our words a lot, and we are confident that others will do the same”.

Violence, crime, poverty, and other “undesirable” elements of society are thus intelectualized. Most of us at Berkeley or any other school of liberal arts can fluently discuss solutions for homelessness, hunger, war, and disease. But how much actual experiece do we have? I’m sure some of us have done a stint in the peace corps or somesuch, but how do we react when something “real” is staring us in the face?

Now, some argue that the universities are at fault here, but I don’t wholly agree. To a degree, a university ought to have a degree of shelteredness to it, so that everyone can feel safe expressing themselves. “Shelteredness” I guess also depends on the demographics of the school, in which case I would hypothesize that Cal is much less sheltered than Harvard. However, the real way to create capable adults is to teach children to be capable, and that’s the family’s job. I’m not saying you have to be a boy scout, but a supportive family is going inspire more outgoing and open-minded children.

Think about the transition from high school to college. It was probably harder for some depending on the kind of life they came from than others. And why else would we call life after college “the real world” if it didn’t shelter us?