My Daughter's Graduation Ceremony

The Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Hebrew University, Professor Boaz Shamir, spoke about what he had learned as a student, and about what he hoped the graduating students had learned. He mentioned five things: learning to think, learning to learn, learning about a field, developing (or beginning to develop) a world view, and knowing oneself better.
Since our daughter was living with us for two of the three years of her studies, we could see that on every front, she was achieving those five things, and it was a privilege and pleasure for us as parents to see her develop.
The Dean's words prompted me to look back at what I took away from my own undergraduate education. It seems to me that on the first four of the five counts, I did well at Princeton. But I don't think I knew myself much better at the end. I asked Judith whether she would say that her four years at Wellesley gave her self-knowledge, and she laughed.
We were both twenty-one when we graduated, and Hannah, our daughter, is twenty-five, because, like most Israelis, she served in the army for two years and also did a lot of travelling before beginning her studies. It isn't possible for twenty-one year olds to know themselves as well as twenty-five year olds, and it probably isn't possible for universities to attempt intentionally to provide students with self-knowledge. But it would probably be a good idea if beginning students were told that one of their major tasks in the coming years would be to increase their self-knowledge -- whether they're studying physics or finance.