At the end of Camelot, a despondent King Arthur, on the eve of a terrible battle he is loathe to fight, encounters a cheerful young boy bent on joining his majesty’s forces for the fray.
Arthur is impressed with the boy’s moxy, but “Suppose,” he asks, “they kill you?”
“Then I shall be dead, Milord,” the boy allows. “But I don't intend to be dead. I intend to be a knight.”
The remembrance of that conversation came one recent afternoon on the heels of two reports. One was the latest publication of the American Freshman Survey, which has been taking the...









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