...even today, a significant proportion of young W European boys of a certain class make the "tour" before committing themselves to university... per tradition, these boys are generally accompanied by a "letter of introduction" from a well-situated, well-known, older, unrelated, male referee...i have rarely come across females on "tour" but would guess that, in modern times, it does happen...American families sometimes follow this tradition...my oldest son did so with a letter of introduction from one of my parents' friends...there was an article in the NY Times a few years ago about the increasing frequency of this tradition in USA families...I think it would be an exaggeration to say that the boys are sent out with today's equivalent of "fifty dollars"; however, the European tradition is for the boys to travel light and cheap (as did my son, Dalton)...the "tour" is expected to be an adventure for boys not a vacation or it's equivalent...surely there must have been and are exceptions among wealthy families...possibly, European families of high class would consider Mitt Romney's 2 years in France as a young missionary to be a weak approximation of "the tour"...
On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 9:55 PM, Wayne Tyson <[email protected]> wrote: > Honorable Forum: > > I heard of a college (university?) in (mid-20th century) Paris that was > very expensive. A few wealthy Americans and others sent their young men > (probably no women, but I don't know for sure) there. The new student was > given a suitcase and fifty dollars and told to find their way around the > world the best way they could, then they would start their formal education > upon their return. > > Can anyone confirm the existence of such a college, and if it did exist > tell me more about it? I don't recall the name. > > WT > > > PS: I've always had a soft spot in my heart for such an institution, but > alas, have still not gotten my precious little @ss around the world . . .. > Of course, I had no wealthy parents to foot the bill for the tuition (about > $5,000 per semester, if I recall correctly--a king's ransom in those days). > > -- clara b. jones
