An Immodest Proposal (Again)

This is the season when people begin to anxiously await word from on high. When I say, “on high,” I do not mean it in the religious sense of the season. I talk, instead, about the force that exerts a more immediate impact on our lives, the college admissions office. 

Those high school seniors who have exhibited outstanding intellectual talents are waiting to hear from the big-time academic schools, the ones that impress everyone when, for the rest of your life, you tell people where you went. The less gifted are scouring their computer screens for good news from somewhat lesser impressive names, but, at least, the best that they can hope for.

So, here’s a question – is it better if the people who are already really smart go to the best schools, or would it be better if those who are not as smart have the chance to attend those exalted institutions?

I know this sounds like a ridiculous proposition, and you might think that even after you read this blog. But I will try here to make a case for my suggestion. 

My premise is that college is a place where you go to learn how to think better. If you want to go someplace to learn how to perform a particular job, you can go to a technical school, or after college, to a specific graduate school. College is where you are exposed to ideas, the most valuable of which are the ones that you have never considered before. This cultures the mind. It trains the intellect to evaluate and judge between various alternatives. It creates circumspection.

High school kids who now qualify for top-tier colleges are typically those who have never received a grade lower than an A or A+. On top of that they are usually Presidents of their class, recipients of top awards in both sports and spelling. And even a small percentage of them may already have won a Nobel Prize. More importantly for my theory, their accomplishments have required them to already have demonstrated exceptional thinking skills before they even set foot on a college campus.

I exaggerate, but you get the point.

The elite colleges give the best education. In other words, they provide the best training on how to think. Why should we limit the exposure to that best teaching to the kids who are already good thinkers. They need it the least. 

On the other hand, aren’t the ones who have not yet sharpened their thinking skills the ones that should be given the better chance to be shown how to improve those talents?

Who is hurt by this change of priority? Will the elite students be disadvantaged? Not really. While the thousands of other institutions they will attend may not have as many famous professors or as big an endowment, the educations that can be obtained at those colleges will serve an already active thinker with a fulfilling experience. 

To the contrary, under this system, those kids who in high school went to twice as many parties as they did libraries will have a better opportunity to be exposed to an environment that is more likely to engage and activate their thought processes.

What good would this do? Obviously (at least to me) it would grow the number of people in the country who deliberate in ways that render better results. And when there are more people who think that way, won’t it affect the kinds of votes that they cast? And here is where I get to the political point. If that happens, won’t those voters be less gullible to the lying pap that politicians try to feed them? When (and I’m just picking out a wild hypothetical here) say a con artist President of the United States constantly lies to them, won’t these more attuned voters be better able to identify his duplicity and reject him.

So now you know where I have been going with this. And if my suggestion still makes no sense to you for any other reason, at least consider it if it might prevent another Orange Julius.

[P.S. As you can see from the tone of this entry, I do not expect many to agree with me about what I say here. I can have some pretty wacky ideas. As Ed Koch used to say, “If you agree with me on nine out of twelve issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on twelve out of twelve, see a psychiatrist.” I simply offer all of this up as fodder for thinking, kind of like what colleges do.]