Yet what else was my education for if not to cultivate an attitude of mind that can be brought to bear on any situation? In the case of raising children, it helps to be able to articulate why they shouldn't behave in certain ways, why they should pick their toys up and not leave it to others. You may not need a degree to do this, but it helps.

Kids are also expert manipulators, quick to spot any weakness or flaw in an argument. A higher education gives a good grounding in how to reason, how to explain and justify a response.

For all that they take, children also give. A life spent in the pursuit of self-gratification is ultimately impoverished. There is enormous enjoyment to be found in seeing children flourish within the boundaries you set for them. That kind of flourishing within an academic discipline is exactly what higher education sets out to do: it is a mirror-image of the task of parenting.

So what do we, as women struggling to find the energy to read Homer or Shakespeare with children who would rather play World of Warcraft, say is the value of our education? Was it just for getting us out of the home? Or was it to make us more rounded individuals, perhaps even the kind of rounded individuals who could raise inquiring and well-mannered children? Because, surely, raising children to be thoughtful and considerate members of society is the hardest job of all. If universities are not educating students to be citizens who can take the humanities beyond the academy — yes, even into the nursery — then what are they for?