Hurst University

For as long as my children can remember, I have told them that they are students at Hurst University. It has no campus, no accreditation, and no admissions process. Joining the family is enough to get you enrolled. Graduation is another matter. There is only one requirement. By the time you leave the house, you should be capable of building a future for yourself. I don’t mean that you should know what you are going to do for the rest of your life. That is one of the stranger questions we ask young people. Most adults I know have changed direction enough times that pretending an eighteen-year-old is making a permanent occupational choice is unserious. What I mean is more fundamental. You should know how to learn, and you should know how to work. When you encounter something you don’t understand, you should have some idea how to get from ignorance to competence. You should know how to take a hit without deciding the hit defines you, how to recognize when your assumptions were wrong, and…