I have always wondered
why society worships Ivy League schools as if they
were the gods of education.
Seriously, what makes these
eight schools catnip to teenage eggheads?
I
have come to the realization
that it is the name that singles out these institutions. It's the cult
of elitism that we have come to celebrate in this country. We encourage
the dismissal of other
people so that a few can retain their
status. The competitive climate that education has become
does not benefit
students at
all. But it does make a few
a lot of money.
The editors of n + 1 express similar
thoughts in "Death
by Degrees"
(Editors, 2012). Juxtaposing the
American educational system
against the Chinese meritocracy of
antiquity, they maintain that as student
enrollment rises so
do the standards of
the elite. The necessary
educational standards rise
for jobs not out of
necessity but
for exclusion.
One only needs to look at the alma maters of our current Supreme
Court justices. All of
them have a degree from Harvard
or Yale. Perfectly capable graduates may have dreams that
will never come to fruition
because their degrees are
not elite enough. In America,
all degrees are not created equal.
It's not just
careers on the line in our
education system;
it's lots of money. Student
loans have
become
the bane of college graduates everywhere.The problem is that
getting a degree doesn't
guarantee a great salary; in fact, it's starting to mean less and
less as more
earn degrees. So, parents
spend
thousands of dollars on
schooling
and test preparation, grooming
their offspring for a school with a Latin motto. Then,
these
young
disillusioned
jobless adults end up with degrees but are saddled
with debt. All of this despite the fact that most
careers shouldn't require four years of
education anyway. Why does an engineer
need to take art appreciation? And why does an artist
need to take chemistry?
People always asked
me when I was younger
if I wanted to go to Harvard or Stanford. I did not even apply to one such school, and
I don't think I've missed
anything. Having an education with a price tag of $50,000 a year doesn't entice
me.To learn is enough. Possessed
with the notion of prestige
and Ivy League mythos, too
many of us forget
that sentiment.
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