Educated

Remarkable testament to the power of education (specifically history and philosophy) to overcome abuse & miseducation at home by fueling personal passion. "We are all of us more complicated than the roles we are assigned in the stories other people tell." They don't define you. https://t.co/9GPa66EcAc

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) August 25, 2019

So pleased to welcome our new class of students at today’s convocation, featuring author @tarawestover, whose magnificent book, “Educated: A Memoir,” was our summer reading assignment! #TRUEBLUE pic.twitter.com/j8rLPDHmhk

— Sidney A. McPhee (@PresidentMcPhee) August 24, 2019

Similar message from Frank Bruni:

“My fear is that these kids are always going to be evaluating their self-worth in terms of whether they hit the next rung society has placed in front of them at exactly the time that society has placed it. And that’s dangerous, because you’re going to slip and fall in your life.” 

“College is a singular opportunity to rummage through and luxuriate in ideas, to give your brain a vigorous workout and your soul a thorough investigation, to realize how very large the world is and to contemplate your desired place in it.” 

“But too many kids get to college and try to collapse it, to make it as comfortable and recognizable as possible. They replicate the friends and friendships they've previously enjoyed. They join groups that perpetuate their high school cliques. Concerned with establishing a "network" they seek out peers with aspirations identical to their own. In doing so, they frequently default to a clannishness that too easily becomes a lifelong habit. ....Open your laptops . Delete at least one of every four bookmarks. Replace it with something entirely different, even anti ethical. Go to twitter, Facebook etc start falling or connecting with views that diverge from your own. Conduct your social lives along the same lines, mixing it up. Do not go only to the campus basketball games....wander beyond the periphery of campus, and not to find equally enchanted realms-if you study abroad, don't choose the destination for its picturesqueness-but to see something else.” 
― Frank Bruni, Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania