Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Elite ...

... and out of touch: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education. (Hat tip, Lee Lowe.)

Elite colleges and universities are to education what corporations are to free enterprise.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Frank,

    Very interesting. I have a PhD student at Dartmouth, and I don't fit the usual profile of a parent of one evidently. Sam got into the program a few years back after graduating EE from UMass Lowell summa cum laude. He loves it there, has found a home, and finds it very rewarding.

    But I support Sam in his eliteness. This is necessary for the type of achievement that he is accomplishing. It is valuable, and needs to be done now versus later, even at the expense of the "disadvantages" of being less worldly. He needs to be elite now.

    This is similar, though, to athletes, the ones who go on to be Olympians and professional football players and such. If they are to succeed, they need to keep working at it. The harder you work, the luckier you get--and all those sayings. They need to stay in their bubbles and remain naive. The pros and the Olympians are the ones who never got significantly sidetracked by anything. This is why, I think, many pro athletes get into trouble. They have been keeping their aggression hormones pumping, but never grew up exposed to the cruel world.

    The point is, that this is how it would be for entrepreneurs, poets and book review editors who excel too. But as we get older, we learn to integrate--and by the way, Sam seems to do this well, like when he comes home for the rare week end, although he has no time for a girlfriend or any social diversions either. But I want him focussed now, even at the expense or the "disadvantage" of not integrating himself in with us regular people. Life will bring him plenty of that later, and if he gets sidetracked, it's not impossible, but it is difficult to pick up the ball where it was left.

    Yours,
    Rus

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2:13 AM

    Rus, it sounds like your son is distinguished by, among other things, his passion. When I see kids who are being pushed along the elite career path, I'm troubled by how many of them have no such passion, only diligence. I often wonder what would happen if they were given time to cultivate the knowledge that comes from failure and the inner life that thrives on being alone with one's thoughts. None of that invalidates the elite career-track, of course, because I have no doubt it's the right path for some, but it's a shame that more of the kids cites in Deresiewicz's article aren't aware that sometimes there's a more scenic route to success--or to defining "success" differently.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Actually, Rus, Sam demonstrates that it's not the school that makes the students, but the students - and the teachers - who make the school. Sam is interested in his subject for its own sake.
    What Deresiewicz's piece demonstrates is the extent to which something Albert Jay Nock predicted would happen has: Schools have shifted from formative education to instrumental education, instead of shaping students for being, they are merely training them for doing. The be-all and end-all of education is not to have a career, but a life.

    ReplyDelete