> College is not a trade school, it was never meant to train you for a job with rare exceptions like medical professionals and they have a lengthy apprentice pr

> College is not a trade school, it was never meant to train you for a job with rare exceptions like medical professionals and they have a lengthy apprentice program. The University of Bologna, the first university, had faculties of law, medicine and theology. That’s a trade school for lawyers, notaries, physicians and priests. While university has always been an alien place for anyone not of the bourgeoisie or higher it’s always been mostly about getting a good job afterwards. There were never enough people whose family had enough money to support them doing anything or nothing to support that many scholars. College is and always has been in large part about getting its graduates good jobs. Saying it’s not a trade school is primarily about snobbery. One of the ways it makes its graduates suitable for those jobs is by teaching them the habitus of university men (and nowadays women) so that they can’t be mistaken for the kind of people who do go to a trade school.