The Atlantic How College Became a Ruthless Competition ...

[Anonymous]

In light of recent threads, I was wondering if anyone else read this/your thoughts?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/618795/

[Anonymous]

An interesting article and lots of good points and observations in it. Thanks for posting.

[Anonymous]

This article is right on point. Thanks for posting.

[Anonymous]

Very interesting perspective. From the article:
“Education’s core purpose is (or once was) to help people engage with the world and grow into themselves—to discover the overlap between their interests and their talents and develop it. Different people and schools each embrace distinctive visions of empathy, understanding, wisdom, and usefulness: The scholar aspires to know the forces that drive history forward, the inventor seeks to bend technology to practical ends, and the activist strives to reform institutions and inspire citizens to embrace justice. Schools with different educational missions ought to favor different students, and students with different aspirations ought to favor different schools. ”

[Anonymous]

Because somewhere along the way a ticket to an elite college also became, in the eyes of parents of privilege, an entitlement to an entire life of privilege for their (aided and abetted by parental wealth).

[Anonymous]

Very interesting. But after reading this article, you leave it with the impression that these elite schools have nothing to offer outside of being a status symbols. Do they offer quality faculty and education or is it just a big joke?

And it does not address where the super nerds of the world are supposed to go to continue their educations? Where are all these students that would rather spend their time in a library instead of watching tiktok videos supposed to go?

[Anonymous]

Love this: Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, once quipped that "the next thing they’ll do is rank churches. You know, ‘Where does God appear most frequently? How big are the pews?”

[Anonymous]

Also love this: "Test scores and rankings are bad at capturing education: They don’t even pretend to capture a student’s overall progress toward an emotionally and intellectually mature set of attitudes about herself and her world."

[Anonymous]

I love the section about halfway down that starts with this: “The turn away from the humanities is a sign of competitive schooling’s most far-reaching effect: It perverts our culture’s understanding of what education is, and makes us forget that schooling has value beyond status seeking.”

How many threads on DCUM include assertions from parents that a degree in anything other than business or STEM is useless? That they expect a return on their investment in their child’s education? That they would not *allow* their child to study what interests them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love this: Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, once quipped that "the next thing they’ll do is rank churches. You know, ‘Where does God appear most frequently? How big are the pews?”

Ok Bard. But where will our future astrophysicists come from? Bard? Maybe but I think is fair to say that there might be a better option for them out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love the section about halfway down that starts with this: “The turn away from the humanities is a sign of competitive schooling’s most far-reaching effect: It perverts our culture’s understanding of what education is, and makes us forget that schooling has value beyond status seeking.”

How many threads on DCUM include assertions from parents that a degree in anything other than business or STEM is useless? That they expect a return on their investment in their child’s education? That they would not *allow* their child to study what interests them?

I grew up poor and when I did go to college, ensuring I could immediately transition into a well paying job was the top priority for me which I knew I could do with a BS in engineering. Growing up UMC or higher offers a lot more insulation, but when the standard of living is falling for everyone below the 90th percent income level, is it any wonder that this results in overall financial anxiety for basically everyone outside the top few percentage income?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the section about halfway down that starts with this: “The turn away from the humanities is a sign of competitive schooling’s most far-reaching effect: It perverts our culture’s understanding of what education is, and makes us forget that schooling has value beyond status seeking.”

How many threads on DCUM include assertions from parents that a degree in anything other than business or STEM is useless? That they expect a return on their investment in their child’s education? That they would not *allow* their child to study what interests them?

I grew up poor and when I did go to college, ensuring I could immediately transition into a well paying job was the top priority for me which I knew I could do with a BS in engineering. Growing up UMC or higher offers a lot more insulation, but when the standard of living is falling for everyone below the 90th percent income level, is it any wonder that this results in overall financial anxiety for basically everyone outside the top few percentage income?

It makes complete sense. But we also all know very very successful people that were not educated at Princeton or Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because somewhere along the way a ticket to an elite college also became, in the eyes of parents of privilege, an entitlement to an entire life of privilege for their (aided and abetted by parental wealth).

Because if you went to Princeton or Harvard in the 1950s it was something different?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because somewhere along the way a ticket to an elite college also became, in the eyes of parents of privilege, an entitlement to an entire life of privilege for their (aided and abetted by parental wealth).

Because if you went to Princeton or Harvard in the 1950s it was something different?

Very different. Was there a single female at Princeton the 50s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting perspective. From the article:
“Education’s core purpose is (or once was) to help people engage with the world and grow into themselves—to discover the overlap between their interests and their talents and develop it. Different people and schools each embrace distinctive visions of empathy, understanding, wisdom, and usefulness: The scholar aspires to know the forces that drive history forward, the inventor seeks to bend technology to practical ends, and the activist strives to reform institutions and inspire citizens to embrace justice. Schools with different educational missions ought to favor different students, and students with different aspirations ought to favor different schools. ”

Yes! I have repeatedly said on here and say to my kids that college is not intended to be trade school!