Looks like all those years of education didn't help this author learn how to write short, concise paragraphs.
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
181–190 of 228 posts
Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's exactly what she said though: > I will say that the ability "to not be rich" is, in fact, a choice not psychologically available to many upper class people (emphasis mine)
That is not the same thing at all. There's a vast chasm between not possible because you don't have the money and not phychologically available because you can't imagine lowering your standards. For one, the argument that rich people can't bring themselves to do it might be true, but is a broad generalization that is speculating about the mental state of other people. The argument that when you don't have the money,…
It's not physically possible either. It's a pretty common affectation of trust fund kids that they can just pretend to be normal, but it's just play-acting or maybe economic tourism. The song "Common People" describes how it turns out: "But still you'll never get it right / 'cos when you're laid in bed at night watching roaches climb the wall / If you call your Dad he could stop it all."
Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey, look, it's a list of top 100 public schools in California! http://patch.com/california/redlands/2016-top-100-public-hig... None of the top ten schools on that list seem to have a community service requirement [0]. There doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule regarding which schools do or don't have a community service requirement. Mission San Jose does, but Lynbrook does not. [0] As determined by a quick google…
I was mistaken, I thought it was a California state wide thing but I guess not. Either way, your statement about the top 10 CA high schools is false. I attended Granada Hills Charter and San Marino high school (#1 and #7 respectively) and both do absolutely require community service. San Marino requires 40 hours over four years [1] and GHCHS requires 20 hours per semester [2]. A friend at Miramonte High School didn't…
I will cede to your first source, but your second source is specifically for CSF membership at Granada Hills, which doesn't look like it's mandatory for graduation.
But sure, it looks like my naive search approach is inadequate, as it for the most part brought up credits (as you mentioned).
Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey, look, it's a list of top 100 public schools in California! http://patch.com/california/redlands/2016-top-100-public-hig... None of the top ten schools on that list seem to have a community service requirement [0]. There doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule regarding which schools do or don't have a community service requirement. Mission San Jose does, but Lynbrook does not. [0] As determined by a quick google…
I was mistaken, I thought it was a California state wide thing but I guess not. Either way, your statement about the top 10 CA high schools is false. I attended Granada Hills Charter and San Marino high school (#1 and #7 respectively) and both do absolutely require community service. San Marino requires 40 hours over four years [1] and GHCHS requires 20 hours per semester [2]. A friend at Miramonte High School didn't…
Looks like Saratoga High also has a community service requirement. Other than that, I can't find any others on that top ten sublist (e.g. Canyon Crest explicitly states it doesn't have a community service requirement [0], Lynbrook states that community service isn't a district requirement).
And to be fair, I don't think charter schools should be lumped in with the rest of the public schools, but that's probably just my opinion.
[0] http://cc.sduhsd.net/Counseling/Community-Service/ [1] http://www.lhs.fuhsd.org/resume
Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
#185The intentions behind the first paragraph of the article are undoubtedly good, but it reads a lot like "Boo hoo, I can't engage in small talk with this pleb because I'm too educated for him.".
Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
The remarks here on HN dissing this article piqued my curiosity The other day I read a comment observing that commenters here have an almost Pavlovian response that compels them to disagree with the article. That seems right to me. A while ago I wrote this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12300542 , which touches on similar themes.
I'd rather see remarks disagreeing rather then bobbing heads at every topic.
The problem is that broadly the disagreements are so shallow.
People bounce off a word choice or something in the first paragraph then either stop reading or skim.... then post about it.
Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
#187That first paragraph is a perfect expression of the last election - the Ivy League guy can't figure out how to talk to the plumber, even when they're in the same room.
Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fear of recognizing a caste system is that once you use words to describe something, the words themselves become a tool to reinforce and then codify that system. I mean, India itself seems to be a prototypical example of that.
On the contrary, without the words to describe such structures, they remain hidden from discourse and direct criticism. This protects the implicit structures by rendering them unassailable by democratic processes.
But they become far more assailable by social processes, and often without a fight at all.
Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Thats why an elite education is an advantage. The author isn't saying that an elite education offers no advantage. He's saying that it has downsides as well. It's not 100% advantageous, and yet we tend to think of it as so. > They think going to a shitty school teaches you how to talk to everyone? It certainly does a better job than isolating yourself within a very narrow band of culture. In my experience, that's j…
Any school will have a culture. Those that pride themselves on diversity tend to have one narrow kind of variety, and extreme monoculture on other axes - or else have a bunch of subcultural groups that don't really talk to each other. There's a kind of fundamental conservation: for people to be able to communicate and work together requires a certain level of cultural commonality. So whichever school you went to, you…
One criticism the article makes is that people with elite educations are expected to be leaders of the entire country (or community or other group), yet they often do not understand the common man at all. I think this is both valid and note worthy. It goes a long way towards explaining the discontent of "the 99 percent."
Rules made by elite are often rules made for the benefit of the elite as well. They often completely overlook the needs of the rest of the people and these rules may benefit the elite at the expense of the masses.
It is one of the reasons I walked away from my scholarship. I am unwilling to exercise power in that manner.
Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)
#190I graduated from one of the top universities in my country (top 50 in the world) and we learned pretty much exactly the same material as they did at MIT. In reality I don't think there is any significant difference in terms of education quality between the top #1 university and #100 for any given field. But the difference in terms of opportunities after finishing MIT vs finishing some other good university is massive…
I went to Berkeley for CS and knew people that went to MIT and Stanford, and I don't agree. You're right the curriculum is the same. Everything else is different. Just one example: lots of undergrads do research. They get to work (albeit basically as trainees) in some of the top CS labs in the world.
Umm... Berkeley also has some of the top CS labs in the world...