Why we need more taxpayer funding for Higher Ed.

Utopia at Stanford. The Synergy Program may be unsustainable, but it makes people feel good about themselves. Hooray. Hippies used to fund these kinds of programs on their own, in an informal, unstructured manner, with some help from Mom and Dad. But putting such programs on campus naturally leads to costs which students and their families cannot manage without taxpayer help.

More higher education, particularly at elite liberal universities, is clearly the key to America's future ability to compete in the world. No doubt the ground-breaking Synergy program at Stanford helps the participants get good jobs and fulfill key roles in society. It deserves our generous support through Pell grants, etc. In fact, we should think about making similar programs mandatory for young people.

And when the graduates are making big bucks as Insect Negotiators, they can fund more programs through their tax contributions. You know their parents will be proud.

But seriously, I think part of our educational program should focus on letting kids be kids. How many of these post-adolescents were pushed by Mom and Dad to get into an elite school at all costs? How many were told at 6 that they were responsible for saving the planet? Or the whales? Or Darfur? Things they had no possibility of controlling. How many were given adult privileges long before they were adults? Maybe they should have experienced talking to ants when they were eight, instead of worrying about world events.

Maybe we should refrain from putting the weight of the world's problems on children's shoulders at a young age. Let them learn about self-mastery, interpersonal relationships, nature, God, work and play. And some educational basics. Maybe then they won't revert to the ant-negotiating stage of human development when they get to the university. How many of the Synergy graduates will be past their self-congratulatory post-adolescent dependency 5 years after graduation?