Don’t Get A Degree from Dick School
Words from a wise woman on not playing that particular part
Charis Denison is a seasoned educator and consultant in the Bay Area whose work focuses on young people. I’m also fairly sure she’s brilliant. At least, she says some things that sound pretty brilliant to me. And I mean both cerebrally and emotionally intelligent.
She was quoted in an article I read last year in the Atlantic about raising boys. I remember in part due to her memorable Greek-goddessy name (from which we get the word “charity”), but primarily because she delivered a ferociously unforgettable quote:
“At one time or another, every young man will get a letter of admission to ‘dick school.’ The question is, will he drop out, graduate, or go for an advanced degree?”
These feel like the words of a woman who fundamentally understands boys. Her decades of working with them likely have something to do with that knowledge. “Dick school” is about as perfect a metaphor as it gets. It makes “dick school drop-out” a winking badge of honor. And “a degree from dick school” is an undesirable honor to bestow upon that friend we all have who fails to check themselves as they should. I imagine such a school would have many specialized fields of study: physical dickery, financial dickery, emotional dickery, and…
