College prolongs infancy

The author argues that modern higher education has become an extension of childhood, delaying the transition to full adult responsibility. By tracing the rise of public schooling and its growing authority over health, behavior, and family life, the book shows how the school system has gradually supplanted the home as the primary socializing force. It situates this shift within the broader context of industrial growth, rising wealth, and democratic ideals that promised universal education.

The text critiques the way prolonged schooling can keep young adults dependent, turning college years into an extended adolescence rather than a period of genuine intellectual formation. It questions whether this “inherent right” to free education truly serves society, or merely sustains a comfortable status quo that delays economic participation. Readers are invited to reconsider the purpose of colleges and to think about how education might better prepare citizens for real civic and professional roles.