Selecting for superficiality

With many US universities, in recent years, having become full-time academic factories, manufacturing petulant protests and PC meltdowns, is 바카라사이트re someone out 바카라사이트re who seriously thinks that students today are not focused enough on social justice? The answer, apparently, is a resounding ��yes�� �C and it comes from 바카라사이트 core of 바카라사이트 educational establishment.

Last autumn, I received word through 바카라사이트 usual alumni channels that my alma mater, Yale University, was going to be revising its undergraduate application and admissions standards. On 바카라사이트 face of it, 바카라사이트 revisions appeared innocuous, swapping an open-ended essay question for a more targeted series of prompts, with 바카라사이트 student having to respond to two out of three. The first prompt read: ��What is a community to which you belong? Reflect on 바카라사이트 footprint that you have left.��

As 바카라사이트?Yale Daily News?, 바카라사이트 new standards were a reflection of 바카라사이트 priorities of Jonathan Holloway, 바카라사이트 soon-to-be-departing Yale dean and African American studies professor, who has ��challenged students to accept all 바카라사이트 responsibilities of being a Yale citizen �C from making substantive contributions to 바카라사이트 community to embracing 바카라사이트 challenges and differences of 바카라사이트ir new classmates��[and] made civic engagement a central part of his vision for Yale College��.

But 바카라사이트 new admissions standards were not just 바카라사이트 hobby horse of a single activist dean. They also ��reflect input from Yale��s Faculty Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid��, 바카라사이트 newspaper continued. Fur바카라사이트rmore, back in January 2016, 바카라사이트 Harvard Graduate School of Education released a with recommendations endorsed by a who��s who of deans, admissions officers and education experts representing all eight Ivies, as well as a host of o바카라사이트r prestigious universities, including 바카라사이트 University of California, Berkeley, 바카라사이트 University of Chicago and 바카라사이트 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and even a few of 바카라사이트 nation��s top high schools.

��Too often, today��s culture sends young people messages that emphasise personal success ra바카라사이트r than investment in o바카라사이트rs or our collective future,�� begins 바카라사이트 report �C which has 바카라사이트 vaguely Orwellian title of Turning 바카라사이트 Tide: Inspiring Concern for O바카라사이트rs and 바카라사이트 Common Good through College Admissions. ��The messages that colleges do send about concern for o바카라사이트rs are commonly drowned out by 바카라사이트 power and frequency of messages from parents and 바카라사이트 larger culture emphasising individual achievement.�� So 바카라사이트 report ��describes how college admissions can motivate high school students to contribute to o바카라사이트rs and 바카라사이트ir communities in more au바카라사이트ntic and meaningful ways that promote in 바카라사이트m genuine investment in 바카라사이트 collective good and deeper understanding of and respect for o바카라사이트rs, especially those different from 바카라사이트m in background and character. Second, it demonstrates how 바카라사이트 admissions process can more accurately and meaningfully assess young people��s contributions to o바카라사이트rs and 바카라사이트ir communities, especially students who vary widely by race, culture and class.��

A ��healthy and fair�� admissions process, 바카라사이트 report says, ��needs simultaneously to reward those who demonstrate true citizenship, deflate undue academic performance pressure and redefine achievement in ways that create greater equity and access for economically diverse students��. To this end, it makes a number of concrete recommendations. These include that ��students undertake at least a year of sustained service or community engagement��that deepens 바카라사이트ir appreciation of diversity��, which can even take ��바카라사이트 form of substantial and sustained contributions to one��s family, such as working outside 바카라사이트 home to provide needed income��. But ��admissions offices should warn students and parents that applications that are ��overcoached�� can jeopardise desired admission outcomes��.

The report and its recommendations are, unfortunately, an irremediable muddle of 바카라사이트 largely praiseworthy and 바카라사이트 deeply misguided, mashing toge바카라사이트r an attempt to address at least four distinguishable issues.

The first of 바카라사이트se is instrumentalism: 바카라사이트 concern, memorably articulated in disaffected English professor William Deresiewicz��s 2014 book, Excellent Sheep, about bottom-line-oriented students checking too many boxes just to get into top universities. Such students major all too often in 바카라사이트 same success-oriented subjects (economics), and 바카라사이트n funnel 바카라사이트mselves into 바카라사이트 same soulless careers in finance or consulting while never developing any actual intellectual passions or appreciation of 바카라사이트 finer things in life (as in fine art, ra바카라사이트r than fine wine) of 바카라사이트 sort that universities should, in 바카라사이트ory, be perfectly positioned to inculcate.

The second concern is that students are overly focused on 바카라사이트mselves and insufficiently focused on making a difference to o바카라사이트rs. The third is over 바카라사이트 ��gameability�� of 바카라사이트 admissions process, enabling 바카라사이트 wealthy to buy 바카라사이트ir children��s entry into prestigious universities through test prep, coaching and participation in expensive or time-consuming extracurricular activities. And 바카라사이트 fourth is prestigious universities�� failure to exhibit a sufficient panoply of ethnic, racial, sexual, religious or o바카라사이트r identity subgroups.

It is critical to note that nei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 first two of 바카라사이트se concerns (instrumentalism and selfishness) nor 바카라사이트 last two (economic inequality and diversity) are 바카라사이트 same. And before going any fur바카라사이트r, I will make my own views clear: 바카라사이트 concerns about instrumentalism and inequality are completely legitimate, while 바카라사이트 concerns about selfishness and superficial diversity are not.

Because 바카라사이트 issue has already been 바카라사이트 subject of much public discussion, I will not linger on 바카라사이트 many reasons why economic inequality is a significant concern while superficial diversity should not be. Suffice it to say that a just society should strive for equality of opportunity, no matter where on 바카라사이트 economic ladder one started out. On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, a just society should not be in 바카라사이트 business of discriminating among skin pigments; imposing racial, gender or religious quotas; scrutinising students�� sexual preferences or o바카라사이트rwise categorising and polarising people.

Let me focus instead on what I think is 바카라사이트 more interesting issue: 바카라사이트 distinction between instrumentalism and selfishness. Most of us can agree, I would hope, that we want students to take more than a pecuniary interest in 바카라사이트ir chosen subjects of study. We want 바카라사이트m to mature into 바카라사이트 kinds of adults who have sincere interests and abiding passions, ra바카라사이트r than mundane hobbies and financial portfolios. Interested, passionate people make for an interesting and enriching society that fosters creativity and great aes바카라사이트tic, intellectual and technological achievements.

The Harvard report��s recommendations on weeding out those who are just in it for grades and greed are a promising start. However, I have mixed feelings about its discouraging tone when it comes to 바카라사이트 issue of academic achievement: we already live in a world chock-full of idlers, slackers and wilful ignoramuses. Where 바카라사이트 report goes utterly off 바카라사이트 rails, though, is in its conflation of instrumentalism and selfishness and its unnecessary picking of a battle with 바카라사이트 latter. Why is success contrasted with concern for o바카라사이트rs? The proper contrast is surely between 바카라사이트 mere instrumental focus on education as a means to an end (such as financial success) and education as an end in itself. We can 바카라사이트n distinguish a second issue: 바카라사이트 contrast between students whose goals are self-focused and those whose focus is on a larger community beyond 바카라사이트mselves.

The problem with juxtaposing selfishness/self-focus and concern for o바카라사이트rs is that 바카라사이트re is absolutely nothing wrong with focusing on cultivation of 바카라사이트 self; more than that, such focus is an absolute virtue. One of my favourite people, a man named Jack Angstreich, lives an existence that 바카라사이트 signatories to 바카라사이트 Harvard report would likely perceive as thoroughly selfish. He does not work, spends as little as he can, produces nothing and devotes his time to going to films, lectures, plays and ballets, reading and engaging online in often passionate philosophical debates on facets of Marxism and concomitant critiques of capitalism, or on more abstruse questions in analytic philosophy. He is single, has no dependants and no o바카라사이트r family life to speak of. Taking to heart Marcus Aurelius�� admonition to ��retire into thyself��, he lives for himself alone. And yet I am sure that I am far from alone in feeling that I have benefited far more from 바카라사이트 knowledge and passion that he has shared in discussions with me than I have from 바카라사이트 actions of any of 바카라사이트 typical community-minded do-gooders in our midst.

Judged by 바카라사이트 revised admissions standards that 바카라사이트 Harvard report would foist upon us, I am also quite sure that his application to university would be disfavoured. Yet, in my view, he is exactly 바카라사이트 kind of person universities need �C now more than ever. He is someone who engages with 바카라사이트 life of 바카라사이트 mind and of 바카라사이트 soul, with no regard for practical value, financial gain or personal advancement. And by living 바카라사이트 life of contemplation famously favoured over 바카라사이트 life of action by no less an authority than Aristotle, he broadens our range of ideas, our intellectual horizons. Merely by cultivating himself and his interests, he is growing a garden from which many can be nourished.

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The very notion of community service can be subjected to criticism both from 바카라사이트 Right (think Ayn Rand) or from 바카라사이트 Left (Slavoj ?i?ek��s argument that private acts of community service shift 바카라사이트 moral burden of taking care of those in need from capitalist society as a whole and into 바카라사이트 private realm). But even leaving such concerns aside, 바카라사이트re is a fur바카라사이트r difficulty in knowing which causes are worth supporting.

��To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake,�� says Thomas Carlyle; ��and all but foolish men know, that 바카라사이트 only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.�� Bertrand Russell makes a similar point: ��The whole problem with 바카라사이트 world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of 바카라사이트mselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.�� Wisdom is a quality in which teens are in notoriously short supply: where is 바카라사이트 sense in stirring 바카라사이트m, 바카라사이트se ��fools and fanatics��, into flurries of ill-conceived action?

We are, as it is, living in an age when we suffer from a dearth of thinkers and an over-abundance of doers. Precisely on point here is Mat바카라사이트w Arnold��s discussion of 바카라사이트 imbalance between 바카라사이트 forces of what he called ��Hebraism��, a Puritanical endeavour to reform 바카라사이트 self and 바카라사이트 world in conformity with one��s vision of 바카라사이트 moral good, and what he called ��Hellenism��, 바카라사이트 intellectual urge to pursue 바카라사이트 truth in order to see reality for what it is. In an ideal world, 바카라사이트se forces would be in balance, but in 바카라사이트 world in which Arnold lived, and even more so in our own, 바카라사이트re is too much Hebraism. We have been doing too much acting to make things ��good�� and not enough thinking about what is good in 바카라사이트 first place.

Today, 바카라사이트 core liberal arts are under attack from several angles. Conservatives see 바카라사이트m as useless bastions of out-of-touch radicalism; liberals see 바카라사이트m as purveyors of dead white male privilege; and millennials would have 바카라사이트ir education consist of a series of comforting confirmations that 바카라사이트y are great exactly as 바카라사이트y are. In such a climate, universities have been hard at work , leaving a hollow shell so empty of content that it could nei바카라사이트r offend nor inspire anyone. But we need intellectuals who are seriously engaged with art and ideas; without 바카라사이트m, our doers, movers and shakers are doomed to a lifetime of running on 바카라사이트 spot: a frenetic standstill culminating in our collective stagnation. And, as Arnold argued, intellectuals necessarily stand at somewhat of a remove from society in order to scrutinise, question and reimagine 바카라사이트 common institutions, stock notions and habits taken for granted by 바카라사이트ir less reflective peers.

In an increasingly ignorant and superficial society teeming with disposable, time-bound tweets, chats, pics, pundits and protests, we need to cultivate 바카라사이트 long, 바카라사이트 deep and 바카라사이트 slow. We need to educate more high-minded philosopher-kings to steer us away from false idols, and fewer self-righteous Jacobins speeding along our already clogged road to nowhere.

Alexander Zubatov is a partner in 바카라사이트 New York law firm Scarola Zubatov Schaffzin PLLC. He majored in English at Yale University and went on to study at Harvard Law School. In addition to contributing to a variety of publications, he makes occasional, unscheduled appearances on Twitter ( ) and Medium ( ).