4 ms·

The disturbing part here is that prep schools actually are good. If they were extravagant wastes of money, they would be irrelevant. The reason we have public

by emmett 19y ago

The disturbing part here is that prep schools actually are good. If they were extravagant wastes of money, they would be irrelevant. The reason we have public education is that we're trying to give everyone an equal footing to start out in life. This goal is unachievable, but anything that further stretches the distance between the children of the poor and the children of the rich raises alarm bells for me. I wish I had a good suggestion as to what to do about it.

mynameishere 19y ago
children of the rich I think it's clear that these schools are using their endowments to pick up smart, but (relatively) poor kids. To a lot of people, that's no comfort, as a cognitive aristocracy is no better than a financial aristocracy. The strategy at the ivies has been to filter for both the very smart and the very rich. This gives aptitude access to capital. If this article was about a high-end public school that got its budget from seized money (eg property taxes), then rest assured that the private-school-educated NYTs editors would have suggested some forceful "fixes" for the "problem".
- bokonist 19y ago
  I went to Exeter and Yale and found it the opposite. Yale was smarter and the students weren't quite as well off.
  - mynameishere 19y ago
    What is "it"? What is "it" the opposite of? You're getting a lot of upmods for a very badly constructed sentence. (EDIT: I guess I sound like a jerk. I'm just wondering actually...)
- dgabriel 19y ago
  Your comment immediately reminded me of Bill Murray's speech in Rushmore - "You guys have it real easy. I never had it like this where I grew up. But I send my kids here because the fact is you go to one of the best schools in the country: Rushmore. Now, for some of you it doesn't matter. You were born rich and you're going to stay rich. But here's my advice to the rest of you: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can't buy backbone. Don't let them forget it. Thank you." - Herman Blume, speech to Rushmore Academy
ovi256 19y ago
Do you never wonder how other countries do it? US ranks pretty low among developped (and even developping) countries in education. >This goal is unachievable I completely disagree with you. It is achieveble, not easily, but neither is it so difficult. Hint: it's completely incongruent with "No Child Left Behind". Leave the important stuff to tehnocrats, not politicians.
- curi 19y ago
  Ranks well at what? Standardized test scores? Asian countries in general, and I know about Japan in particular, are very very harsh to students. Test scores up, freedom down. If our children don't put up with that kind of thing, maybe that speaks well of us.
  - asdflkj 19y ago
    What exactly "kind of thing" do you mean?
    - rms 19y ago
      There is a very, very strong emphasis on rote memorization throughout Asian schools, over things like working in groups.
    - curi 19y ago
      the essential issue is obedience. obedient children devote their creativity and effort into doing as their parents and teachers want, such as getting good test scores. one way to try to observe obedience is to look at how harsh conditions people will accept when told to, without complaining and trying to do something about it. everything i know about japanese schools points to a lot more pressure on students to be studious and that kind of thing, and a lot less complaining about any decisions by authorities.
  - jsnx 19y ago
    If it were just Asian countries, I might agree; but the U.S. lags those wild and free Northern European countries in matters like math skills and foreign language training.
jsnx 19y ago
The reason we have public education... ...is to allow the economy to function more efficiently, through pervasive literacy, use of numbers, &c. It's in the interest of the wealthy if they can off load some of the organizational details to a large class of literate servants, but that's not the same as giving everyone a shot at wealth and power.

by emmett 19y ago

mynameishere 19y ago

children of the rich I think it's clear that these schools are using their endowments to pick up smart, but (relatively) poor kids. To a lot of people, that's no comfort, as a cognitive aristocracy is no better than a financial aristocracy. The strategy at the ivies has been to filter for both the very smart and the very rich. This gives aptitude access to capital. If this article was about a high-end public school that got its budget from seized money (eg property taxes), then rest assured that the private-school-educated NYTs editors would have suggested some forceful "fixes" for the "problem".

bokonist 19y ago
I went to Exeter and Yale and found it the opposite. Yale was smarter and the students weren't quite as well off.
- mynameishere 19y ago
  What is "it"? What is "it" the opposite of? You're getting a lot of upmods for a very badly constructed sentence. (EDIT: I guess I sound like a jerk. I'm just wondering actually...)
dgabriel 19y ago
Your comment immediately reminded me of Bill Murray's speech in Rushmore - "You guys have it real easy. I never had it like this where I grew up. But I send my kids here because the fact is you go to one of the best schools in the country: Rushmore. Now, for some of you it doesn't matter. You were born rich and you're going to stay rich. But here's my advice to the rest of you: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can't buy backbone. Don't let them forget it. Thank you." - Herman Blume, speech to Rushmore Academy

ovi256 19y ago

Do you never wonder how other countries do it? US ranks pretty low among developped (and even developping) countries in education. >This goal is unachievable I completely disagree with you. It is achieveble, not easily, but neither is it so difficult. Hint: it's completely incongruent with "No Child Left Behind". Leave the important stuff to tehnocrats, not politicians.

curi 19y ago
Ranks well at what? Standardized test scores? Asian countries in general, and I know about Japan in particular, are very very harsh to students. Test scores up, freedom down. If our children don't put up with that kind of thing, maybe that speaks well of us.
- asdflkj 19y ago
  What exactly "kind of thing" do you mean?
  - rms 19y ago
    There is a very, very strong emphasis on rote memorization throughout Asian schools, over things like working in groups.
  - curi 19y ago
    the essential issue is obedience. obedient children devote their creativity and effort into doing as their parents and teachers want, such as getting good test scores. one way to try to observe obedience is to look at how harsh conditions people will accept when told to, without complaining and trying to do something about it. everything i know about japanese schools points to a lot more pressure on students to be studious and that kind of thing, and a lot less complaining about any decisions by authorities.
- jsnx 19y ago
  If it were just Asian countries, I might agree; but the U.S. lags those wild and free Northern European countries in matters like math skills and foreign language training.

jsnx 19y ago

The reason we have public education... ...is to allow the economy to function more efficiently, through pervasive literacy, use of numbers, &c. It's in the interest of the wealthy if they can off load some of the organizational details to a large class of literate servants, but that's not the same as giving everyone a shot at wealth and power.