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Did they reach their level of accomplishment and contribution because of what they are taught in
school, or despite it?
That question ought to be asked daily, in every classroom and at every school board meeting.
The answer is almost always “both,” but I wonder what happens to us if we amplify that positive
side of that equation.
93. Schools as engines of competence or maintainers of
class?
Or possibly both.
Public schools were the great leveler, the tool that would enable class to be left behind as a
meritocracy took hold.
At schools for “higher”-class kids, though, at fancy boarding schools or rich suburban schools or
at Yale, there’s less time spent on competence and more time spent dreaming. Kids come to
school with both more competence (better reading and speech skills) and bigger dreams
(because those dreams are inculcated at home). As a result, the segregation of school by class
reinforces the cycle, dooming the lower classes to an endless game of competence catch-up, one
that even if it’s won won’t lead to much because the economy spends little time seeking out the
competent.
Give a kid a chance to dream, though, and the open access to resources will help her find
exactly what she needs to know to go far beyond competence.
94. College as a ranking mechanism, a tool for slotting
people into limited pigeonholes
The scarcity model of the industrial age teaches us that there are only a finite number of “good”
jobs. Big companies have limited payrolls, of course, so there’s only one plant manager. Big
universities have just one head of the English department. Big law firms have just one managing
partner, and even the Supreme Court has only nine seats.
As we’ve seen, the ranking starts early, and if you (the thinking goes) don’t get into a good (oh, I
mean famous) college, you’re doomed.
This is one of the reasons that college has become an expensive extension of high school. The
goal is to get in (and possibly get out), but what happens while you’re there doesn’t matter
much if the goal is merely to claim your slot.
When higher education was reserved for elite academics, there was a lot of learning for
learning’s sake, deep dives into esoteric thought that occasionally led to breakthroughs. Once
industrialized, though, college became yet another holding tank, though without the behavior
Stop Stealing Dreams Free Printable Edition 65