Preparing Our Best and Brightest to be…Excellent Sheep?
by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA
from The Association of Boarding Schools Conference in Baltimore
An excellent presentation to open the TABS conference has attendees really talking. The view of William Deresiewicz, a former Yale English professor, is that our elite institutions—whether at the boarding school or university level—may be teaching our brightest students to be smart, well-learned, and excellent in what they pursue, but that we also encourage them to be sheep: following proscribed paths that discourage passion and creativity.
As evidence, consider that IECA members and admission directors note that students are no longer asked to be well-rounded in order to gain admission. Rather, we look for students to be well-lopsided, excelling in some area: perhaps writing skills, leadership, or the arts or sciences. Nonsense, claims Deresiewicz! We may indeed see admissions favoring someone who demonstrates a passion or high-level accomplishment in some area, but elite institutions then require students to be more than competent in all other areas. For example, a top liberal arts college may get excited about a student with a passionate flair for creative writing, and then insist on AP Calculus as a standard for admission.
The result? Students who want to follow their passion quickly learn they must temper that by emphasizing the packaging and gamesmanship necessary for admission. This unfortunately discourages passion.
Such gamesmanship to achieve admission is just the beginning. Once in, students follow similar paths that are designed to insure success at the school: discouraging the taking of challenging or interesting coursework that might harm GPAs, or cause a Wall Street firm to question their seriousness. And in turn, such gamesmanship extends beyond school into career choice. Even when students choose a service year, those from elite schools typically followed the most proscribed, acceptable path: Teach for America or some similar well-trodden path popular with societal leaders.
If such efforts produce students who are well-educated but passionless followers, what role can independent educational consultants play? Help students look beyond admission, beyond name brand colleges, beyond their major, and even beyond careers. Help them to understand that the goal is a LIFE filled with passion—for learning, for family, for community.
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Amen to that, Mark! Such BIG shoes we fill! Lynn Luckenbach
I tend to disagree. I think it’s important that students soak up as much knowledge across the curriculum in high school and early in college because at the ages of 16-20, students are still in the process of discovering what they’re passions are. Top colleges and universities appreciate an excellence in creative writing but still encourage a student to pursue AP Calculus because they want their students to be able to follow their developing passions on their campuses, no matter what direction they may take.