Question: I think that the class structure in the U.S. is maintained by our current system of financial aid awards. The rich don’t have to worry about the cost of attending an ivy league and the poor can qualify based on financial need. If you are an extremely smart poor kid not to worry you can attend an ivy although, the rich are sure to be able to tell the difference between the background of the poor kid and one of their own. The difference between a middle class kid’s background and a rich kid’s might prove more difficult to discern thus it is better to omit the middle class kids from the ivy’s thus ensuring the continuity of the classes. Just a thought. It is better to be a poor genius than a smart one. The middle class smart kids are relegated to the middle class universities.

Answer: Did you read the above email in which someone had student loans of 50,000? I know our country is built on credit but some people do not believe in credit. There are a lot of middle class tax slaves out there that are quite hesitant to utilize credit (hmm, maybe our government should exercise the same restraint) especially when after graduation a great job is not a guarantee. It seems daunting to start out on your own with a huge debt hanging over your head when you can easily go to a private or less prestigious school for free. 1. As noted above, plenty of smart middle-class kids go to prestigious universities. It may not be as easy for them financially, though, and they probably have much more difficulty carrying their presumably higher average student loan balances after graduation.

2. Most of the smart, poor, young people I have known have been worse off than middle-class kids, for purposes of obtaining higher education, because they have tended not to be raised to consider college the unquestionable next step for them after high school. Instead, in some cases they have become wisecracking mechanics or copy center employees, and have spent years in such low-level positions because college has generally not trained the rest of us to recognize and cope with brilliance that is not expressed or channeled in forms of behavior that we find familiar. Thus, for example, the smartass in the mailroom does not necessarily strike the rest of us as an unexplored asset, e.g., as someone who is sharp enough to provide a useful and very different perspective on what we are doing right or wrong in our business.

3. The smart, poor, young people I have known who have continued on to higher education have not always fit into the educational scheme. As in point 2, above, the educational system generally does not look on these people as barometers of the extent to which the university’s wares are genuinely available and meaningful to broad segments of society. Rather, the institution inflexibly insists upon behaviors and priorities matching the upper middle class average, or consensus, that tends to prevail in the college classroom.

In other words, some of us become good students because we are imitating or accepting, more or less unquestioningly, the viewpoints of those who seem to think that being a good student provides a path to success. Others, by contrast, become (or would be willing to become) good students because they have been persuaded (or could be persuaded) that being a good student makes sense; but they will not come to that belief until someone can explain to them why it’s better to sit in a classroom than to be outdoors, developing a bond with the environment on a beautiful day, or until someone can demonstrate why the philosophy of Aristotle or the poetry of Ovid is more compelling or relevant than the philosophy of Spike Lee or the poetry of Jewel. To me, these are good questions, but apparently we do not answer them to the satisfaction of those whose lives demonstrate that they have not been persuaded.

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1. Thought du jour: Rigid Class structure in U.S. Maintained by higher education system
2. What about the Middle Class Community?
3. Robin Hood in Reverse
4. Rejection Letters to Colleges
5. Ivy Admissions
6. Rejection Letters to Colleges
7. Defaulted DSL Student Loan
8. Unfair student loan credit policies
9. Some Thoughts
10. Hope scolarship Credit
11. Auto debiting instead of checks
12. You have a friend to combat Tuition Hike