I see two kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure. It is easy to look around for rebels-- to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the parents for pushing their children too far. But there are no rebels, only victims.
The pressure is heavy on students who just want to graduate and get a job. If I were an employer I would rather employ graduates who have this range and curiosity than those who narrowly pursued safe subjects and high grades. I know incalculable students whose inquiring minds cheer me. I like to hear the play of their ideas. I don't know if they are getting A or C, and I don't care. I also like them as people. The country needs them, and they will find satisfying jobs. I tell them to relax. They can't.
Nor can I blame them. They live in a brutal y it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part time at college and full time during the summer, to increase to 5, 000 in loans after graduation. Encouraged at commencemerit to go forth into the world, he is already behind as he goes forth. How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning?
Along with economic pressure goes parental itably, the two are deeply integrated.
Poor students! They are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt. The parents mean well: they are trying to steer their sons and daughters toward a secure future. But the sons and daughters want to major in history or classics or philosophy-- subjects with no "practical" e's the payoff on the humanities? It's not easy to persuade such loving parents that the humanities do indeed pay off. The intellectual faculties developed by studying subjects like history and classics are just the faculties that make creative leaders in business or almost any general field.
Luckily for me, most of them got into their field by an indirect route, to their surprise, after many roundabout students are startled. They can hardly conceive of a career that was not preplanned. They can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to nudge them down some unforeseen trail.
我發覺今天的大學生有兩種壓力：經濟壓力和來自父母的壓力。環顧四周你很容易發覺一些叛逆者，他們指責學校收費太高，來自父母的壓力太大。但他們不是叛逆者，而是受害者。
對於那些只想從大學畢業並且找到一個工作的人來說，壓力是很大的。如果我是僱主，我寧願僱傭那些有好奇心的博學之才而不是那些只選一些容易過的且能達高分的課程的學生。我認識無數學生，他們的'好奇之心使我興奮不已，因為我喜歡聽他們闡述自己的觀點，我不知道他們是得A還是得C，我不在乎這些。我也同樣喜歡他們所散發出來的人性魅力。國家需要他們，他們也會找到自己滿意的工作。我告訴他們要放鬆，但他們做不到。
但我也不能責怪他們。他們生活在殘酷的經濟時代。今天如果不是不尋常的一個學生，即使他在大學工作部分時間和在暑假全職，畢業後增加5000資產。鼓勵邁步走向世界，他出去的時候已經落後了。在大學的壓力下他怎麼能不每一天做精打細算的準備？
經濟的壓力然後是來自父母的壓力。不可避免的是，兩個都深深相聯絡。
可憐的學生，他們被最原始的愛和責任和罪責感抓住了。父母們本意是好的，他們正把自己的兒女引向一個安全的未來。但的兒子和女兒想主修歷史、古典文學、哲學——沒有“現實”價值的學科。但人文學科的回報在哪裡？這是不容易說服父母人文科學確實有用 。智慧開發的研究歷史和古典文學正是那些使商業及其他一般領域的創新領導者。
幸運的是，他們中的大多數人通過間接的途徑進入他們的領域，讓他們驚訝的是，經過了許多的迂迴方式。學生們嚇了一跳。他們很難想象，不事先計劃好的職業生涯。他們很難想象讓上帝或者命運引導他們不可預知的未來。
