Linda Lee is an editor and writer for theiNew York Times./iShe frequently contributes to the Style, Arts and Leisure, and Business sections. The article she wrote for the Education Life supplement in 1998, called “What’s the Rush? Why College Can Wait,” was the basis for this book. In addition to contributing to theiTimes,/iLee is the author of several books. She lives in New York City.bTHE CASE AGAINST COLLEGE/bbrbriAll great truths begin as blasphemies./ibr–GEORGE BERNARD SHAWbrbrHere is who belongs in college: the high-achieving student who is interested in learning for learning’s sake, those who intend to become schoolteachers and those young people who seem certain to go on to advanced degrees in law, medicine, architecture and the like.brbrHere is who actually goes to college: everyone. That everyone includes the learning disabled and the fairly dumb, those who have trouble reading and writing and doing math, slackers who see college as an opportunity to major in Beers of the World, burned-out book jockeys and the just plain average student with not much interest in anything.brbrThink about your high school class. Now think about the 76 percent of those students (80 to 90 percent in middle-class suburbs) whoisay/ithey expect to go to two-year or four-year colleges. You begin to see the problem?brbrPamela Gerhardt, who has been teaching advanced writing and editing at the University of Maryland for six years, says she has seen a decline in her students’ interest in the world of ideas. In an article in theiWashington Post/ion August 22,1999, she noted: “Last semester, many of my students drifted in late, slumped into chairs, made excuses to leave early and surrounded my desk when papers were due, clearly distraught over the looming deadline. ‘I can’t think of any problems,’ one told me. ‘Nothing interests me.'”brbrHer students, she said, rejected the idea of writing about things like homeless@=p£× ¾Û€