Higher Unhappiness

ON THE FIRST DAY of English 1 in September 1946, English professor John Finch went about the room asking why we freshmen sought a college education.

Responses were varied "To get a better job" the most frequent.

Finch kept asking until someone said, "To have a happier life."

"That's the one I've been looking for!" Finch exclaimed. He told the responder he was bound to be disappointed because higher education would introduce him to more problems and complications the more he learned.

"There is a compensation," Finch concluded. "You'll be unhappier on a higher level of awareness."

Paraphrased and distilled across almost 50 years, these words have never left me.

Finch preached an educatedmisery.