I agree. When first learning Vim the learning curve is very steep for what feels like basically advanced cursor moving but with more experience it becomes a very powerful text editor. Last week another I had a 10,000 line file that was the output of a bash command with two columns and each column was in quotes. I needed to remove the first column and the quotes around the second column. There are many ways to do it but all I had to do was open up vim and type `qaA<backspace><esc>T"d0jq` and `10000@a` and cleaned it right up.
I agree with the necessity of structure at a younger age. The current public education system in America has strict schedules and classes geared towards getting the lowest common denominator a high school diploma. However in a college setting, which is supposed to prepare you for the real world, it's more of a sink or swim scenario that separates those who are disciplined and are willing to work than those who don't know how to thrive without someone telling them what to do at all times. I'm really interested to see how this new university works out.
I'm just speculating but I'd say that with the recent death of Ian Murdock and how that situation played out, tensions are high between the HN community and the police in America.