Reflections on so-called "elite education"

Deresiewicz, W. (2008). "The Disadvantage of an Elite Education". The American Scholar, Summer 2008, 77/3, pp. 20-31.
The author was English teacher at Yale (and thus may have some provocatively exaggerated points, but the core isn't that bad, I'd say:-)

"The first disadvantage of an elite education is how very much of the human it alienates you from" (i.e. you cannot relate to ordinary ppl anymore, the claim goes).

"The second disadvantage, implicit in what I've been saying, is that an elite education inculcates a false sense of self-worth ... all involve numerical rankings: SAT, GPA, GRE." (and, one ought to say, sometimes a false sense of self-esteem...).

on elite uni's and their exlcusivity-drive, reinforcing the self-perception of the "best and the brightest": " There's no point in excluding people unless they know that they've been excluded" (otherwise there is no "exclusive society:-)

"The elite like to think of themselvesas belonging to a meritocracy, but that's true only up to a point. Getting through the gate [of the school, i.e. getting admitted] is very difficult, but once you're in, there is almost nothing you can do to get kicked out" [yeah, maybe, but the fear persist...; on the other hand, there are parallels to management establishment where "eine Hand waescht die andere", i.e. mutual protection of who's "in the club".]

The perception of being 'entitled" to money, fame, power...

"... students from elite schools expect success, and expect it now. They have, by definition, never experienced anything else, and their sense of self has been built around their ability to succeed. The idea of not being successful terrifies them, disorients them, defeats them. They've been driven their whole lives by a fear of failure ... "
[Good point, although the author is here much too narrow and simple-minded. I think the phenomenon goes much deeper...]

and what the guy thinks of the true nature and purpose of an (elite) school:
"their education as part of a larger intellectual journey, have approached the work of the mind with a pilgrim soul ... feel like freaks ... searchers."
[a bit less metaphoric, please - ok, he is English teacher...-, but this is quite true, at least in my eyes. It's the perennial quest, the thirst to know and experience more...]

"Being an intellectual means thinking your way toward a vision of the good society and then trying to realize tht vision by speaking truth to power. It means going into spiritual exile...."
[ok, cool. Sadly, instead of pondering the financial meltdown and the political consequences, all we do is solving problem sets and embracing the Neyman-Pearson Theorem... (I just come from trying to read the stats book...)]

issue needs continuous treatment...