Great points.
In America, colleges were first set up to transmit the heritage of Western Civilization and Christianity, and the later for scientific ‘agriculture and mechanics’. The first mission is completely inverted, and the second is no longer necessary. Universities have usurped the military and the churches as the institutions of acculturation.
Discussed with my wife, high school teacher this AM.
Interesting to note, America’s first colleges were to train preachers and teachers, lawyers and politicians. Then we went through the “Hoover” phase. Now we are in some kind of decadent funk phase.
Many colleges were established to train officers for the military. My grandfather graduated from Cornell Military Institute (now Cornell University) in 1911.