I read this with equal parts head-nodding-agreement and shame-faced-embarrassment:
The first disadvantage of an elite education, as I learned in my kitchen that day, is that it makes you incapable of talking to people who aren’t like you. Elite schools pride themselves on their diversity, but that diversity is almost entirely a matter of ethnicity and race. With respect to class, these schools are largely—indeed increasingly—homogeneous. Visit any elite campus in our great nation and you can thrill to the heartwarming spectacle of the children of white businesspeople and professionals studying and playing alongside the children of black, Asian, and Latino businesspeople and professionals. At the same time, because these schools tend to cultivate liberal attitudes, they leave their students in the paradoxical position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone in it.
[“The Disadvantages of an Elite Education“, The American Scholar]
Relevant personally as the issue of “where are the kids going to school” has raised its ugly head, but I’m curious as to what the rest of the dc readership thinks. I have some individual predictions; let’s see if I’m right. Thoughts?
[via kottke]
