Why Not?

Hey, why not "Sun Musings?"  I have "Fri Musings" and "Sat Musings......"

Interesting that two of my conversations this past week, with Matt and with one of my running buddies, centered on Bo Jackson.  Jackson might have been the best athlete ever--who knows?  He certainly must rank pretty high on any list.  He ran a 4.1 40; high jumped 6'8" in high school, was 6' 4" tall and weighed 240, and could throw and hit!  But, by all accounts, he's a good person, one who knows integrity, honesty, and charity, not to mention appreciation.  That leads me to two stories, one about Jackson.

I guess the Tampa NFL team (whose name I can't remember) invited Jackson down during the winter of his senior year at Auburn for a workout.  Since Jackson was eagerly finishing his baseball season,  he inquired about eligibility; that is, would the Tampa trip, the flight down and accommodations, have an adverse effect on his senior year of baseball.  Oh, no, said Tampa.  You'll be fine.  Once Jackson returned to Auburn, his baseball coach revealed this would make him ineligible to play baseball!  He was steamed.  According to my buddy, Jackson was drafted first by the Tampa team, but refused to sign with them.  He gave up millions of dollars because they lied to him.  Of course, he was later drafted by the Raiders, where he played, but for much less money than a first-rounder.  Good for Jackson!  I knew there was a reason I liked the guy.

And, according to Walter Williams, the CEO of Branch Banking and Trust, one of the ten largest banks in the US, is also a man of integrity.  John Allison refused to let his bank do any business, that is, lend money to, with developers who bought property by having government take it from people.  How cool!  No doubt there was a lot of money in there for BB&T, but because the government stole people's property (OK, legal stealing often called "takings" or "eminent domain"), he wouldn't let his company be a part of the theft and booty.  Yep, I now have another person I admire.

I read a nifty article in The American Scholar, "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education."  Wow, did some of it ring home for me!  The author, who spent 14 years at Yale and Columbia, noted the gaps in his education, the "disadvantages," what one of his friends calls "Ivy Retardation."

There are some stinging remarks here.  The Ivies and other "elite" institutions "leave their students in the paradoxical position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone in it."  He noted two Ivy grads, Al Gore (Yale) and John Kerry (Harvard)--or did I mix that up?--"both earnest, decent, intelligent men, both utterly incapable of communicating with the larger electorate."  I might disagree with the characterization, but not the conclusion.  I think I have blogged about his phenomenon and the people who have it--"arrogant elitism" I have called it.

Those who know me realize I am not Mr. Fix-it.  I am pretty much all thumbs when it comes to mechanical things.  I once scored in the 27% on a mechanical aptitude test.  Oh, when I was younger, I'd try, often taking four or five times as long to finish a job as it should have taken.  But I remember my days at Amherst.  How many times did I earn money for grinders or pizza by working on cars, for instance, changing the oil or replacing mufflers and tailpipes, for guys who had no idea how to do either?  Again, I'm mostly a klutz when it comes to handyman stuff, but far more than once I'd help the fraternity custodian/caretaker (Joe Zygmont, a great guy with not much education, but with whom I had a number of enlightening conversations) around the house.

Another comment in the article, again citing a "disadvantage" in less than flattering way, was "How can I be a teacher--wouldn't that be a waste of my expensive education?  Wouldn't I be squandering the opportunities...?  What will my rich friends think?"  Rich friends?  It was my own father who sounded those same thoughts.  Several times he asked Karen if she could talk to me about leaving teaching.  He made comments like, "You must be the only Amherst graduate who drives a Chevy."  I wonder what he thought when I bought a Horizon--and then drove it for nine years?

I think the author is wrong in his view about the lack of passion for ideas among students and graduates at the elite colleges.  In fact, I have found that to be exactly the opposite, especially among the teachers with whom I've worked.  Oh, there are some who are very passionate, including two of my current colleagues (I think they are great teachers!).  On the whole, though, ideas don't matter.  I remember how few of the high school teachers actually read books or subscribed to magazines or journals in their disciplines.  And, to get an in-service day (oh, how it pains me to write that!) devoted to discussing history?  Yeah, right--they much preferred getting Nerf balls tossed at them.  At one of the colleges, the department head and I tried to get a history newsletter, a journal of sorts, going among the history instructors on all five of the campuses.  The journal would allow for articles or essays about history or the teaching of it, book reviews, etc.  We were able to "publish" one issue.  That one issue had just a few submissions, all by the same few folks.  We tried to get the word out, encouraging others to write something, anything--to no avail.  Nobody wanted to do it.  I never understood and complained to my department head, "How can people who teach college history not have a passion for writing about it?"  We weren't looking for Pulitzer material, just an opportunity to share passions. 

He writes, "The disadvantage of an elite education is that it's given us the elite we have and the elite we're going to have"  These will be the people, dare I say arrogant people?, who "will soon be running a corporation or an institution or a government." And they can't (or won't!) communicate with the common folks.  Of course, they or at least some of them might well think, "Why should we have to communicate with them?"

It's an interesting article and the author has some insightful views.  I went to one of these "elite" instutions.  But, I don't think I came away with many of these attitudes or "disadvantages" cite in it/by him.  I don't think I have "Ivy Retardation."  First, I never felt I was one of the elite, at least not academically (and certainly not socially!).  Second, my own background was far different than those described by the author and far different from many of my schoolmates.  Third, there were far too many people ready and willing to slap me down (figuratively, not literally) if I developed such an "elitism."  No, quite the contrary.  My Amherst education was one of the defining episodes of my life.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.  My professors, my studies, my sports, and, especially, my friends--all were the greatest.  I learned a lot, specifically and about life in general.  My Amherst education was special and I am forever grateful for it.

But, I still enjoyed the article....