How front-loading learning launches young people off course—and leaves their older selves with regret they can’t fix
On graduation day, tassels swinging and flashbulbs popping, we feel invincible.
When we are young, we believe that meaning comes from passion. We think that being interesting is the same as being valuable. We welcome the message that school is about more than a career. We believe it when they say, “Don’t worry about money. Just do what you love.”
But the systems that deliver education—and especially higher education—aren’t built to support the people we become. This essay argues we must redesign higher education by compressing traditional degree programs, funding lifelong booster shots, and shifting the cost of mid-career retraining away from individual employers and toward portable public mechanisms.
No one tells us that at forty-five, usefulness will feel like dignity. That to have someone pay you well because you make their life better