Carothers cons the brothers

           I just read U.R.I. president Robert L. Carother's column in

    the Jan. 25 Providence Journal : " A college education is within

    reach " . I am not impressed with this bureaucrat's mind. Most

    kids who apply for college want that degree badly but only a

    passionate minority actually want EDUCATION.

          They kids see the college degree as a passport to higher

    position in the social pecking order. Can the blue collar working

    class -as a whole -  " degree " itself out of wage slavery ? Who

    would do society's dirty work ? Who will empty bed pans in

    nursing homes and take out our garbage and move the furniture

    of the socially mobile ?

          Carothers is in reality selling a daydream to thousands of

    poor kids. If they should get that bachelor degree, is a good

    job then " within reach " ?

          As long as society is stratified, the majority of working

    class people will be living on daydreams AND buying lottery tickets.

          Kids who value an education as end in itself ( knowledge may

    not lead to SUCCESS but ignorance guarantees failure ) will be

    less bitter when REALITY hits them . Their most likely future :

    a spouse, a family, a mortgage, and a rather humdrum job -whatever

    their academic credentials.

              But nevertheless I wish higher education in Rhode Island

    and Robert Carothers great success !