In an earlier entry I wondered how long before this subject will graduate from school to university, with degree courses on offer. Doctorate-level education is clearly needed, considering that Britain is a proud site of 200,000 abortions every year. And surely, if almost half of our children are born out of wedlock, many of those pregnancies must be accidental. Perhaps, the solution lies in augmenting purely academic work with on-the-job apprenticeship, I don’t know.
Anyway, according to a reader’s letter, this academic development will have to remain a cherished dream for the time being. However, many universities do offer advanced courses of similar intellectual content. So if you think of furthering your education (and it’s never too late), or have a child about to leave school, the opportunities abound.
For example, you can take a course in ‘The Lesbian Phallus’ at the Occidental College, LA (Critical Theory, Social Justice Dept.). Queen’s, Belfast, offers ‘How to train in the Jedi way’. Not to be outdone, Georgetown University counters with ‘Philosophy and Star Trek‘. You can pursue ‘Harry Potter Studies’ at Durham or ‘The Life and Times of Robin Hood’ at the type-cast Nottingham University. Alfred University, NYC, can contribute to your intellectual growth by offering ‘Maple Syrup Making’, and Glasgow proudly lists a post-graduate course on ‘The History of Lace Knitting in Shetland’.
Without passing any unfashionable quality judgment, one simply has to observe that the concept of university has changed somewhat since that budding young scholar left the village of Aquino and travelled, via Monte Cassino, to Paris to study with Albert the Great. How much richer young Thomas (and we along with him) would have been had he learned not Aristotle but, say, ‘The art of skinning a bullock’ or ‘The plight of women in the agora’. So I hope you’ll join me in rejoicing at the progress we’ve made since those uncivilised times.