I have two daughters, twins, who will be starting college at the same time late this summer. One is going to Guadalajara to begin her studies in international commerce, and one is going to art school in Philadelphia. As we have been hit hard by the recession, helping both them to bear the costs has generated lots of anxiety, especially considering the thunderheads that have piled high in the media over young people graduating with crushing college loan debts and dismal prospects of finding jobs. There is more than a suggestion out there that perhaps a college education is not a good investment, especially in something like art, and most especially in the fine arts, where a livelihood is far from easy to attain.
There isn't polite language to say how strongly I feel to the contrary. For those who have the ambition, talent, and resolve to work hard to learn, particularly to learn to think and act creatively, I believe that it is our duty as parents and as the shepherds of the generation to supercede ours - in other words, as a nation and as a world of civilized people, to do everything in our power to encourage and fund the pursuit of knowledge and its creative application. The idea that we would discourage these dreams and desires in our youth is far more frightening to me than the possibility of going broke helping them to follow those dreams, because those dreams, in ways we cannot know, will fuel their lives, and the future of an enlightened and hope filled human race.
