Nerd Analysis: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education

Here is an interesting article from The American Scholar, the publication of that venerable old nerd society, Phi Beta Kappa.

The author is an Ivy graduate who spent a decade teaching at Yale, so he has the "nerd cred" to speak, even if his words will probably anger a great many elitists.

Here are a few choice lines from his article:

~The last thing an elite education will teach you is its own inadequacy.

~The first disadvantage of an elite education . . . is that it makes you incapable of talking to people who aren’t like you.

~The second disadvantage, implicit in what I’ve been saying, is that an elite education inculcates a false sense of self-worth.

~One of the great errors of an elite education, then, is that it teaches you to think that measures of intelligence and academic achievement are measures of value in some moral or metaphysical sense. But they’re not.

~If you’re afraid to fail, you’re afraid to take risks, which begins to explain the final and most damning disadvantage of an elite education: that it is profoundly anti-intellectual.

Hm!

I'm not saying that I agree with all of Mr. Deresiewicz's assertions, but they are worth looking at. The last thing we should be doing is treating elite education as if it is beyond criticism, because it's not.

A caveat too: beware the danger of overgeneralizing. Do consider the possibility that some elite students can actually have minds of their own, thoughts of their own, and the ability to be mavericks, black sheep, and rebellious, robust individuals who aren't total automatons of the system. (Golly, I hope I'm such a nerd.)

There is, though, one advantage of an elite education that doesn't show up in this discussion, and it might be relevant if the discussion is going to tackle issues of quality. I've said this before, but I'll say it again: one of the great things about my getting an "elite" degree is the fact that I'm no longer impressed, awed, or cowed by other people who have "elite" degrees. So-and-So might be able to overawe some people because So-and-So has a famous degree, but I feel perfectly justified in saying that So-and-So is talking nonsense if I think So-and-So really is talking nonsense. And if So-and-So tries to pull out his/her elite credentials, I can pull out mine too. So there.

"You think you can steamroller over me because you have an elite degree? WELL, SO DO I. Pffffffffffffffft!!!!"