I realise that by merely raising a quizzical eyebrow about the self-evident priority of these goals I am going to be damned for being out of touch with "the real world".
Some see education as a means to an end; others see it as an end in itself.
I've gotten past it. I don't know how old I was when I realized that the vast majority of students see education as a meal ticket. "What are you going to do with your degree?" "Oh, I don't know. Hang it on the wall, maybe. More likely, it'll collect dust on a shelf." "No, I mean, how will you market yourself?" That sort of thing. To this day I still see education as a goal in itself, but I've been keenly aware that many folks do not.
We roll with it. We even exploit the fact, using it as a recruiting edge. (That's probably why Lulu notices that it is being "pushed" in his university.)
