Hey Education

Earlier in the year Harvard extended its financial aid to cover the middle class.  Now Princeton has announced plans to send 10% of its 2009 freshman class to a year of (supported) service before they attend the university.  I am smitten with the idea of America's leading schools using their endowments to make education more inclusive (or less burdensome to the already included) and to broaden the scope of their 'teaching'.  I hope these ideas trickle down to other schools with less-impressive endowments and that these schools can somehow make things work, moneywise.  

Taking a year off is clever in general. The difference in a man between a 19 and an 18 is much more than a year and, who knows, if enough students get a taste of helping others before going Pre-dental, we might just get somewhere [Note: at the expense of oral hygiene].