Personal Assistants for College Kids?

The National News section of Sunday's Buffalo News ran an article about a college kid at Georgetown who posted an employment ad searching for a personal assistant. Apparently his course load, part time job at a financial organziation and the recent illness of a family member is making it too difficult for him to do his laundry, make a hair cut appt and update his electronic networking.

Good for him. He recognizes he needs help and now he can spend the extra time nurturing a better shot at that Ivy League Grad school acceptance or that 6 figure Wall Street job offer. All well and good for our Georgetown man. Use every advantage available to you to succeed. Not to mention offering employment to some kid less fortunate than he. He understands the value of time, and he cannot waste his on mundane tasks such as laundry or a hair appointment. He certainly cannot properly keep up his Facebook and Twitter accounts with all these distractions. Besides aren't these the jobs saved for housewives, immigrants and the poor?

College is supposedly a time to grow up, to find your own way, to challenge your mind and to push yourself to find out who you are and who you can be. Isn't it also supposed to be a level playing field where your economic background is not the advantage but your ability to think and your persistence to learn is the advantage? Can a student who is worried about paying his tuition and eating be competitive with one whose only time consumer is working on his internship or Strategic Policy paper? If only the best grades get the top grad school positions and decision making job, aren't we already using personal economic positions to discriminate? Are we leading down a path where the people who will be running our industries and governments are the people who couldn't handle everyday tasks and felt it necessary to get the less fortunate to help? We need strong, brilliant men and women to take us to the next level, not just those with the means to play the game well.

I guess I am being rather pollyanna with my view of equality and true merit in our higher education process. But I want to wear the rose colored glasses because I want my son to be one of the brilliant men who make a difference and because of that I would (not proudly) use every advantage available to him. Hypocrisy? Maybe.