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I'm reading this article on American Scholar. Here's a quote from it that I liked a lot because I think it sums up my feelings/experience with higher education.
"Some students end up at second-tier schools because they’re exactly like students at Harvard or Yale, only less gifted or driven. But others end up there because they have a more independent spirit. They didn’t get straight A’s because they couldn’t be bothered to give everything in every class. They concentrated on the ones that meant the most to them or on a single strong extracurricular passion or on projects that had nothing to do with school or even with looking good on a college application. Maybe they just sat in their room, reading a lot and writing in their journal. These are the kinds of kids who are likely, once they get to college, to be more interested in the human spirit than in school spirit, and to think about leaving college bearing questions, not resumés."
This is part of my struggles to get really "serious" about my work and "success." Of course there are other issues at play, but I am trying to understand myself better lately, and I really think this is part of my fear of success. I.e. a resentment that I have to "play the game" rather than develop my own mind. Being a player was never interesting to me, and although I'm better at pretending to be one, I still don't really believe in it.
Link to the original article for those of you interested:
www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/
"Some students end up at second-tier schools because they’re exactly like students at Harvard or Yale, only less gifted or driven. But others end up there because they have a more independent spirit. They didn’t get straight A’s because they couldn’t be bothered to give everything in every class. They concentrated on the ones that meant the most to them or on a single strong extracurricular passion or on projects that had nothing to do with school or even with looking good on a college application. Maybe they just sat in their room, reading a lot and writing in their journal. These are the kinds of kids who are likely, once they get to college, to be more interested in the human spirit than in school spirit, and to think about leaving college bearing questions, not resumés."
This is part of my struggles to get really "serious" about my work and "success." Of course there are other issues at play, but I am trying to understand myself better lately, and I really think this is part of my fear of success. I.e. a resentment that I have to "play the game" rather than develop my own mind. Being a player was never interesting to me, and although I'm better at pretending to be one, I still don't really believe in it.
Link to the original article for those of you interested:
www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/
