The Disadvantages of an Elite Education

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The author states: "But students who get into elite schools are precisely the ones who have best learned to work within the system, so it’s almost impossible for them to see outside it, to see that it’s even there. Long before they got to college, they turned themselves into world-class hoop-jumpers and teacher-pleasers, getting A’s in every class no matter how boring they found the teacher or how pointless the subject, racking up eight or 10 extracurricular activities no matter what else they wanted to do with their time." This reminded me of schools around here. That's all I wanted to say.

BINGO!

Yeah, I think there's some truth to this. It's a shame, too, because I think those kids grow into the kind of person that name-drops and crap like that. I find such people sort of dull.

"those kids" are social climbers and whatever hillock they are presented, they will climb, dropping names all the way. Kind of different from people pleasers, teacher pleasers, and even potentially people like him. Loved the cartoon

Personally, going to Princeton (because of its financial aid) made me so aware of the diversity of people and that is where I learned to talk to the daughters of plumbers, people from East LA, you name it. That is kind of where I really learned (from fellow students) that a box existed, that there was more than one box, and very that there were very different boxes that people had see outside of.

I agree with the cartoon and I think the title of his article should have been "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education for a WASP male who has always been around people like himself and goes to college and poof! surrounds himself with the same people."

[Anonymous]

I think his background is Orthodox Jewish, according to his bio.

[Anonymous]

He also went to Columbia undergrad and for grad school. I don't understand how he could fail to mention Columbia's core curriculum during that extended rant about how ivies force you to specialize in one field instead of exposing you to many diverse fields.

More to the point, how could he spend 7-8 years in Manhattan and never speak to cafe owners or taxicab drivers or food truck people? Did he never leave his dorm?

[Anonymous]

And how can you study literature, which is in large part the study of the human condition, and not be curious enough about people unlike yourself to talk to them?