Higher education should do more to promote marriage and having kids, according to a social commentator.
Leah Sargeant said while colleges will recruit and admit male students, they do not do enough once they are on campus to promote marriage. She writes and speaks about family and culture.
“Once there’s a roughly balanced dating pool, the students are on their own,” Sergeant wrote in Deseret News. “But if schools were willing to admit that part of their appeal is exposure to like-minded possible partners, they could go a little further in making campus as conducive to marriage as to future internships and jobs.”
She suggests daycare centers and elementary schools could be located on or near campus to allow students experience working with kids. This would also allow students to see how a potential spouse interacts with kids.
Sargeant also suggested career offices could help students think through the tradeoffs of potential jobs and how it might conflict with family life.
“Career offices could stand to be a little franker about the tradeoffs of different high-intensity careers. ‘Do you hope to marry and have children? When? At what age? Why?’ is as relevant to sorting through career paths as ‘What city do you want to live in,’” she wrote.
“When schools are silent on these important questions, students correctly surmise that their program thinks of children as ancillary to a good life, something to squeeze in around the margins of your professional ambitions.”
MORE: George Mason professor says marriage promotes ‘white supremacy’
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