Cultural Elite Elegy

What? I Am Part of the Cultural Elite? No Way!     The morning after the election results of November 2016 I was standing outside my apartment talking with a neighbor and knocking around our new world order. He was waxing lyrical about the phrase “Eastern Cultural Elite,” waving his arms inclusively and stating what was obvious to him—that we were both part of that newly criticized and chastised fraction of America. It stopped me. I had never thought of myself as belonging to any politically defined group beyond white and female…

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Welcome to My University

How About a School That Teaches Rather than Caters to Students?     Universities and colleges in America these days are a giant mess. Potential students have become “customers,” shopping for the “right” school, scoffing at the often outrageous and ruinous costs, and treating an education like a product for purchase. They oddly see acceptance to some so-called prestigious place as a ticket to fame and fortune, as if they didn’t have to attend for four years and pass exams along the way. Some of their parents also think a university education…

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