Elite Education

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the different kinds of university education out there. I could write about a lot of things now related to my choices – why and how -, but it’s late, and I’d really just like to recommend an article I have read that I found extremely interesting.
There are all kinds of universities, and many of them differ from country to country and even within a country quite considerably. One type are the elite universities that ought to attract only the brightest and best. Yet, what really happens behind the gates of many of these places is generally not asking questions and going on intellectual journeys to find answers to big questions but rather to feed the system and produce ‘future leaders’; those who hold power, not those who question it.

The link to the fantastic article talking specifically about elite universities in the US such as Yale and Harvard can be found here: http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say my college can just as well be placed in what is described in the article, there are a number of features (mentioned in the article) that do appear again and again, and made me thus appreciate this article so much. What is it that I think I’ve experienced in my college? Many students appear to be sleepwalking from high-school to college, not knowing what they’re doing here; clearly ‘good’ is equalled to numerical values; diversity is predominantly about ethnicity and race – not class; grade-culture and being pampered with many second chances; feeding the system rather than questioning it; et cetera. Although I may say I perceive it as a somewhat general culture here, it is by no means the only one and many great fellow students, mostly critical towards ‘the system’, prove that point. And sometimes I just think most of these features represent a pseudo reality, a wannabe-elitist school perhaps? On the other hand it can be said that even on a smaller scale (UCU being the ‘elitist’ college in the Netherlands, perhaps even in mainland Europe) the culture of career-making rather than mind-making with all the features listed above can already be observed. We should be careful not to slip away too much from great intellectual journeys…

There are many things coming to my mind now and so much one could talk about. Maybe some reactions can start a discussion or I will develop some clearer thoughts on this when time allows… In the meantime, do read the article!