I have just finished reading a few articles about higher education in the New York Times. To avoid being overly political, I’m not going to blog about Paul Krugman’s piece, although it’s hard for me not to agree with what he says about attacks from the right against higher education. This opinion piece by Professor Andrew Delbanco, who is in American Studies at Columbia, addresses the issue of smugness and snobbery at schools like the Ivy League. He points out that this is one of the main reasons why people outside the academy (and even within the academy) have such a visceral reaction against elitist schools. He makes an important point about how SAT scores, a big factor in admission decisions for schools like Harvard and Princeton, rise in direct proportion to household income. Only 3% of students in the top 150 schools in the US come from families from the lower income quartile. That’s a pretty sobering statistic in a country that claims to provide opportunities for all. Delbanco reminds readers that schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were founded by stern Protestants who felt the mission of these schools should be to teach humility and charity. This has been lost, replaced by a feeling of entitlement, as students who arrive at these schools are constantly congratulated for being so bright, for being “a cut above the rest.” Delbanco says schools like these should return to a secular version of some old-time religion. If graduates from top universities cultivated humility and charity instead of smugness and feelings of superiority, it would go a long ways towards diffusing negative attitudes towards such institutions. His vision is probably far too utopian, but I do think it’s a nice idea.
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AuthorI am an associate professor of French literature and culture at the University of Kansas. The opinions expressed here are my own. They do not in any way, shape, or form represent the views of my department or university. Archives
September 2015
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