Why I'm Still Glad I Went to College

I started college at Northeastern University in Boston in 1964. I was the first girl in my family to ever attend, and I wanted to do well. Unfortunately for me (I was always a bit of a non-conformist), the early 1960s were still a very conservative time. Yes, society was gradually changing, but girls were still expected to wear dresses to class, and many of the boys wore jackets and ties. (I much preferred wearing jeans, but that wouldn't be acceptable till later in the decade.) As I recall, most of my professors were older, and very serious. They did not expect to be questioned or challenged. We all sat in class and took notes, we memorized what the professor said, and we tried our best to get good grades. I was a commuter student, as were most of the working-class kids who attended; living at home cost much less than living on campus.

When we had some free time, many of us participated in extra-curricular activities. I immediately gravitated towards the college newspaper: I wanted to be a sportswriter, but that didn't seem to be something girls were allowed to do. I tried the radio station too, because I wanted to be a deejay, but I was told girls couldn't do that either. It was an era when I not only encountered sexism, but some folks would also make antisemitic remarks. (I applied for a loan to pay for school and was told I didn't need one because I was Jewish... Evidently, people still believed the myth that all the Jews were rich. I explained that most of us were not, but the folks in the financial aid office didn't seem persuaded...)

On the other hand, going to college opened up my world. I met students from many other countries, and I encountered ideas and beliefs I hadn't learned about before. In addition, the university often brought in guest speakers, some of whom were in the news. Not all of my classes were interesting, but a few really stood out: I especially loved my World Religions class, where I had a young professor who was different from most of the others-- he encouraged debate, he wanted us to think, and he didn't even mind if students called him by his first name.

I finally did get on the radio in 1968, as many of you know; in fact, I was the first female deejay in the campus station's history. By that time, protests against the Vietnam war were breaking out on campuses all across the country. I recall playing a lot of anti-war songs. It was personal for many of us: we all knew former students who had been drafted and sent to Vietnam, and who never made it home alive. To be honest, we didn't understand why our country was fighting in Vietnam, and we wanted the war to end. We made our feelings known through the music we played, as well as through peaceful protest. (And yes, I know: on some campuses, the protests were not so peaceful. But on ours, as I recall, they were.)  

Fast forward to today. The current president has a well-known vendetta against "elite" colleges, and against courses he deems "woke." (I still don't know what that word means, and it seems to mainly be applied to anything he doesn't agree with.) He has cancelled funds for life-saving medical and scientific research, and canceled various grants for working-class students. Meanwhile, governors who are his acolytes have demanded that entire majors and courses be eliminated. And as we all know, this president wants the Department of Education to be dismantled (which is not good news for students with disabilities, but that's a story for another day). 

These days, I'm told that college campuses are just hotbeds of "woke ideology" and "indoctrination." I've also been told that college campuses are hotbeds of antisemitism. And I'm told that professors are biased and they're teaching their students the wrong things. As someone who has been a professor for nearly 40 years, the conservative discourses about college make me sad (and frustrated) because I know they are demonstrably false-- yet I also know they're widely believed. I've taught in many cities, and yes, I've certainly met professors who were liberal ideologues, just like I've met professors who were conservative ideologues. I've met some who were biased, and some who were opinionated. But contrary to the stereotypes, the vast majority of educators are not extremists, and they're not biased. Most educators that I know care deeply about teaching, and they're trying to share their expertise with the next generation. 

I understand that college isn't for everyone. And I'm well aware that some campuses have been in the news for angry protests about Gaza, the way some were in the news for angry protests about Vietnam. I'm not trying to minimize what these students feel, or ignore the way some have acted. But let's also not minimize the fact that all over the country, millions of students (of all ages) are taking college courses, in hopes of bettering themselves. The president seems to find it politically useful to demonize college: perhaps he believes that some ideas are dangerous, and only he should decide what's fit to be studied. I disagree. As a society, we need more opportunities to learn something new, even if a course or a professor don't align with our own views. It breaks my heart to hear politicians saying college isn't necessary, or claiming certain colleges ought to be shut down. Even years later, I still believe the best thing I did was go to college. And I hope that today's young people will still have that opportunity. It could turn out to be life-changing, just like it was for me. 

Ten Years After-- Or Some Thoughts About Blogging

I guess you could call me a "life-long learner": even though I have two master's degrees and a PhD, I always enjoy learning new things. So, in early 2015, I was taking an online course about political communication via New York University, and the professor wanted us to start a blog about politics. I had read a few blogs, about various topics, but I'd never had one myself. And although I like to write, I had never thought of becoming a blogger. Still, I wanted to get credit for the course, and so it was that I began blogging. But I never planned to continue it once the course was over. 

And yet, ten years later, I'm still blogging. Once the course ended, I was able to expand into topics other than politics-- in fact, in the decade that I've been writing my blog posts, the topics have been very wide-ranging. I've written about the history of broadcasting, my favorite TV shows, baseball, classic rock, interesting aspects of my career, current events (some controversial, some not), some politics, and of course, at times, I write about a certain Canadian rock band named Rush. 

I have never expected to be widely read. In fact, a typical post of mine tends to get somewhere between 100-150 views. That's fine with me; I mainly write as a form of catharsis, and if something I wrote ever resonates with someone, that makes me happy. Now and then, people will reach out to me on social media and praise one of my posts. Sometimes, I'll get a few comments. But usually, I'm content to write something new every couple of weeks, and leave it at that. 

Blogging regularly for ten years has given me new admiration for the columnists who do it for a living. It takes self-discipline (and good research) to write on a regular basis. Sometimes, there's just nothing much I feel like saying, and at other times, there's so much to say that I don't know where to begin. Sometimes, I wonder if I should keep on doing it-- maybe I've become boring, maybe ten years is more than enough. But then, something I wrote strikes a chord and I find that I'm being quoted by Bob Cesca or Stephanie Miller; or someone messages me to thank me for what I wrote that week.

And on more than a few occasions, I've been very glad to have this blog-- especially when I could write about special occasions, like being in Cleveland for Geddy Lee's book tour, or seeing Rush's R40 concert in Boston. (My Rush-related posts, as I would expect, have been the most popular. My tribute to Neil after his passing received more than 17,600 views, for example.) And thanks to my blog, I could commemorate what I learned from my parents, or pay tribute to some unsung heroes and heroines from history who deserve to be remembered, or talk about what has (and has not) changed in politics since I was growing up. Speaking of politics, these days, I often find it best to avoid certain topics: I hate to generalize, but as a society, people seem angrier and less willing to accept perspectives that differ from their own. It didn't used to be that way. 

But for the most part, the folks who have read my blog have been courteous, and I appreciate that. I don't know how long I'll keep on blogging. I don't know if my blog is making a difference, or if anyone really cares what I think (except, perhaps, about Rush). But for now, it's my ten year anniversary as a blogger, and I may as well keep going, for as long as I still have opinions I want to express. Thanks for reading!