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Race To Nowhere For America's College-Bound Students
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by Rory Cripps | November 11, 2010 at 02:47 pm
290 views | 4 Recommendations | 1 comment
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Waylon Jennings& Willie Nelson - Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys
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One of my favorite movies is the Dead Poets Society. There's always been pressure put on America's kids to get into "the college of their choice".
I, myself, attended a small and very elite private high school the first year it opened. That lasted about 6 months (LOL and thank God that it did), because I played hooky one day (I was literally on a boat) and got expelled and wound up in a public high school. I was accused of being the "ring leader" and the idiot administrators took the other kid's word over mine because the other kid's parents were doctors and lawyers and such. Mommas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys!
No doubt that kids nowadays have more pressure put on them when it comes to scholastic achievement, etc, however the pressure has always been there to an extent. It's just that, nowadays, more kids are attending colleges and universities, therefore there's more competition.
Talk to many "successful" first and second-generation Americans, for instance, that are in their 50s and 60s and they'll tell you that they were pushed to over-achieve. As I've said: There's an "opportunity cost" for every road or path we head down. There's an opportunity cost for every kid that grows up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood, just as there is for a kid that grows up in a poor neighborhood. Parents can only guide and attempt to nurture their kids, but in the end, their kids have to make up their own minds about what direction they'll head.
"Success" is a crap shoot. And any "success" that tells you that it's not and that their"success" was achieved due to their "brilliance", native intelligence, and own device is full of crap. Avoid those types of people like the plague for they are bonafide and certifiable narcissists and sociopaths that self-inhabit a fantasy world full of delusions.
Have you read Erich Fromm's, The Sane Socety? I honestly believe that there are many more mentally ill "successes" out there than we're led to believe. The problem with American society is that nut cases are often given a pass because they're "successful" and have a lot of dough. I'd, personally, rather associate with ignorant crackers in many cases, because at least they're honest and don't put on airs.
It's definitely "a race to nowhere" for many kids that want to be accepted to elite American universities. Some kids can handle it and some kids can't. But this is what American society has become: Overly competitive to the point where people will sacrifice anything and everything (including their kid's peace of mind and well-being) in order to "get ahead" and make the big bucks.
When I see pompous American "successes", full of hubris, walking around strutting their stuff with their chest out, like their poop doesn't stink, I cringe because those types of Americans are more often than not the most shallow, callous, and ignorant individuals out there. And I'm not alone in my sentiments. Indeed many here in America, let alone the rest of the world, view Americans as walking around strutting their stuff, with their chest out, like their poop doesn't stink.
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Rory Cripps
New Port Richey, Florida, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 11:03 on December 10th, 2010
Rory, this is a great post, and I agree with your sentiments completely (a shock I am sure to some of those who have seen our sparring matches online in the past)! Sadly, those same pompous American "successes" as you so aptly put it, are the ones who make Americans look bad around the world. Because they are the ones who can afford to travel, and who are then cocky enough to tell people in other countries to give them special treatment, or more respect, because they are "Americans." They are the ones who sneer at Stone Henge, because it is no <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Grand Canyon, or complain that there is no “real Japanese food” in Tokyo, it was more “Japanese” back in New York. The fact that these narrow minded oafs do not represent the vast majority of Americans, who are actually very intelligent open minded and compassionate, sometimes escapes those on the outside looking in at the US. It is unfortunate, because some of the smartest, most open-minded Americans do not make the cut for those elite schools, or are not working in those high-paid jobs, or just do not have the time or resources to go travelling and marketing the good qualities that such a large percentage of the US population have.
I have met US soldiers, who joined the Army, because where they grew up, it was the Army, or prison; no ivy-league schools for them. Yet, coming from a poor background, in a very rough neighbourhood, they can join the Army, and get out of that. They had a more level headed, open minded perspective on the world than many of those privileged, “successful” and coddled people, swaggering around basking in their own opulence. The poor soldiers, going over seas and killing in Iraq or Afghanistan often have a better understanding of that enemy than the people at home; a better grasp of world politics. Stories like that were the “success” stories, the American dream that made the US a beacon after the war, for people from around the world to flock towards; escaping poverty, with the opportunity to build a better life, through one’s own labours. Getting your children into prestigious, expensive, private schools; having them stressed out, and yet sheltered from reality, that is not success. Those who rise to the top through their own labour, their own ability, those are the success stories that Americans were once proud to demonstrate to the world. Now, that is simply not good enough in the eyes of some. It really is a shame. Competition is a good thing, if it accomplishes something. Those who get an edge, because they make it into one of these elite schools do not always accomplish that much. The man who pulls himself from the gutter, but only gets into a local college has accomplished no less, and often more, because the over all benefit is greater, than the Ivy-League alumus who goes on to middle management, content in their superiority.