Agreed. My life was changed by a single biology teacher who graduated from Harvard in the 1960s. He decided to devote his life to teaching in a sleepy, company-

Agreed. My life was changed by a single biology teacher who graduated from Harvard in the 1960s. He decided to devote his life to teaching in a sleepy, company-town (East Hartford, CT) public high school rather than pursue research, $$, etc. On the first day of class in 9th grade, he handed out photocopies of the sheet of paper that alumni interviewers fill out for potential applicants. This sheet of paper had checkboxes indicating achievement levels in things like art, music, sports, research, etc. with the following gradations: -locally distinguished -distinguished at the town/county level -distinguished at the state level -distinguished at the national level He told us that we were not competing with each other, but rather that we were competing with "a kid from Glastonbury [CT] who drove to school in a BMW this morning". The message was clear: if you wanted to get into an ivy, the next four years of school were to be a grand song and dance to get as many state and national level checkmarks as possible. We were lucky to have heard his message. There were a couple thousand other kids in the school that didn't hear it. How could they know that it worked this way?