Argh! Move over Harvard! MIT is teaching real life skills.

What child ever went to their parents when they were seven and said, "Father, I hope someday to be an accountant for people in the sock industry," or "Mother, my dream is to be a engineer designing freeway bridges in large, metropolitan cities with mass transit."

Okay... maybe a few kids say that.  But most have no interest.  Rather, they want to be a superhero, a fireman, a professional athlete, a musician, an actor, or perhaps a pirate.

Yes, a pirate.  Whether it is the story of the princess bride, Robin Hood, Pirates of the Caribbean, or some other version, young people have always had a fascination with pirating.

Indeed, when I took my youngest son to DisneyWorld for the first time, becoming a pirate was his favorite activity.  The opening picture is evidence that (1) Disney does a great job turning children into pirates, (2) Disney pirated all my money, and (3) there is such a thing as a skeleton pirate.

Now all of this is interesting, until you hit your senior year in high school, which my son is entering.  As you look at colleges, there is great excitement for those still chasing their dreams.  There are science and STEM jobs where you may hopefully get to be part of an experiment and become a super mutant.  There are scholarships for actors, musicians, and even for accountants.  There are trade schools as well for firemen.  But where do you go to be a pirate?

Harvard? Nada. Yale? Nope. Vanderbilt? No.  MIT?  You bet!!

That is right,

SEE THE PROGRAM HERE!

If you are at MIT and need to fulfill your physical education requirements you can take their pirate program.  Now, for those youngsters who love to do AP work in high school, MIT makes clear that "Non-MIT courses and life experience are not counted towards completing the certificate."

And, of course, they ay, "The MIT Pirate Certificate is for entertainment purposes only and does not give the recipient license to engage in piracy or any pirate activities."

Wink, wink...

But still, a real pirate certification from an American University!  If I was their marketing director, I would put this on the front page of every brochure.