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2002-07-02 - 9:40 p.m.

The young man's voice startled me, because I didn't see him standing there near the front door when I was returning to work from lunch.

"Hey! I just got accepted at Kryptonite University!" he said, with a smile in his voice. For a moment I thought he was talking to me, but I looked over and saw he was talking into a cell phone. I almost said "congratulations." Because this is where I work, and I should have been glad this person was so apparently proud to be joining the ranks of students. But I have to admit, my first thought was, "Just wait until you see what is in store for you now."

I am a little cog in a big machine that processes students through a nearly impossible set of hoops called higher education. And I see them wander through the doors, looking for that big college experience,and know that only the most persistent of them will leave with the prized piece of paper. Notice I said "persistent," ....not "brilliant" or "talented." In education, as in life, you are only rewarded for following all the rules, reading the fine print, or being the "squeaky wheel." (ie. you don't get anything unless you throw a big fit) The college experience, at least here at Kryptonite, is one of learning to fill out forms, stand in lines, decipher arcane rules, and finagle services from the legions of underpaid workers who can't help and don't care. That said, there are a few who manage to be different.

But I couldn't help wondering how that guy would describe this place in six months.

Sure, this isn't exactly the Ivy League.... this is a college that, a few years ago, actually adopted the slogan: You might just find yourself here.Try looking at that on the side of a bus every day on your way to work. It has a scary aura of inevitability about it. (And then one year they called it "the culture zone".... and I earned some disapproving looks for changing the "c" to a "v" on my catalog cover. But I am conforming better now.....) It is a college where lots of people go when they have gone away to college and wiped out-- flunked, partied, got pregnant, got homesick, whatever-- and then come back home with their tails between their legs to move in with the folks and try to redeem themselves. But that's no reason to send them through a bureaucratic hell.

Actually I have come to believe there is a lot of wasted talent, floating around out there, in people who just can't play the game. Who questioned the need for forms and grades and audits and rules. There are other good ways to learn. But, unfortunately, only one way to get a gen-u-ine university diploma with your name on it. And...double unfortunately.... most people still believe that's the ticket to success.

I'll save that for another day.

Tonight, the air is like pea soup outside, and the sound of random explosions is keeping me a little on edge. The dog lets out a little woof every time one comes too close. And then looks kind of guilty because he isn't supposed to bark in the house.... but he can't let those noises go uncommented upon. We have a city ordinance against fireworks but everyone pretty much ignores it. So this morning at 6:30 am I heard a string of fireworks going off somewhere nearby. And I had to think about: the life of someone who would set off fireworks in the city at that hour of the morning. On Tuesday, July second. Not one I can imagine. Or maybe it is just one of those students who found himself here.

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