In the last few years, I’ve been reading and writing about the American meritocracy, and I’m going to be posting some of these pieces here from time to time. But today I want to post a wonderful statement on the subject by Michael Lewis, which I somehow had missed when it first came out. It’s … Continue reading Michael Lewis: Don’t Eat Fortune’s Cookie
This lovely essay explores the most common question that modernity prompts strangers to ask each other: What do you do? The author is the philosopher Alain de Botton, who explains that this question is freighted with moral judgment. In a meritocracy, what you do for a living is not just your job; it’s who you … Continue reading Alain de Botton: On Asking People What They “Do”
This post is a fascinating essay by Yasheng Huang about the Chinese examination system, which was recently published in Aeon. Here's a link to the original. It draws on his new book, which I highly recommend: The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exam, Autocracy, Stability and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They … Continue reading Yasheng Huang — The Exam that Broke Society
This post is an essay by Rachel Shin about the hypercompetition among students at elite universities, which appeared several weeks ago in Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. She reports that Yale undergraduates have ramped up student stress by turning the application process for admission to what are supposed to be benign extracurricular activities … Continue reading Rachel Shin on Hypercompetition at Elite Universities
This post is a reflection on the social advantage that comes from attending an extremely exclusive private college. Typically this means one of the Ivy-Plus schools -- namely members of the Ivy League plus a few others such as Stanford and Chicago. Upper-middle class families are famously obsessed with getting their children into one of … Continue reading You Don’t Need the Ivies to Be Successful
This post is an opinion essay that appeared in a recent Newsweek. Here's a link to the original. And here's a link and another and yet another for somewhat different spins on the subject. In the belief system of the American meritocracy, pursuing higher levels of formal education is the route to upward mobility and … Continue reading Diplomas May Be Killing the American Dream
This post is a recent essay by David Brooks about how the Trumpers have a point. A key part of what they're objecting to is people like us, the residents of the highly credentialed American meritocracy who lord it over the unwashed who didn't go to Princeton or didn't go to college at all. As … Continue reading David Brooks: What If We’re the Bad Guys Here?
This post is an op-ed by Harvard undergrad Aden Barton, which was published recently in the Harvard Crimson. Here's a link to the original. To see the graphs he refers to, click on the link. The essay explores the reasons for the recent surge in careerism among Harvard undergraduate as a way to understand the … Continue reading Aden Barton — How Harvard Careerism Killed the Classroom
This post is an essay by Simon Sarris that recently appeared in the magazine Palladium. Here's a link to the original. I can't say that I buy the argument Sarris is making here, but I sure find it illuminating. He's saying that we used to induct young people into productive activity at a much younger age, … Continue reading Simon Sarris: School Is Not Enough
This post is an essay by Adam Grant published in the Times in 2018. Here's a link to the original. His theme is one that has long resonated with me: Doing well in school is overrated. If you're getting all A's, you're denying yourself a rich educational experience and missing out on the kind of learning … Continue reading Adam Grant — What Straight-A Students Get Wrong
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 