"Transforming hereditary privilege into ‘merit,’ the existing system of educational selection, with the Big Three [Harvard, Princeton, and Yale] as its capstone, provides the appearance if not the substance of equality of opportunity. In so doing, it legitimates the established order as one that rewards ability over the prerogatives of birth. The problem with a ‘meritocracy,’ then, is not only that its ideals are routinely violated (though that is true), but also that it veils the power relations beneath it. For the definition of ‘merit,’ including the one that now prevails in America’s leading universities, always bears the imprint of the distribution of power in the larger society. Those who are able to define ‘merit’ will almost invariably possess more of it, and those with greater resources—cultural, economic and social—will generally be able to ensure that the educational system will deem their children more meritorious."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Jerome Karabel, The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (Houghton Mifflin: 2005), pp. 549-550
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Education in the United States
35 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Education in the United States →
Related Quotes
"The nation’s universities have been deformed into playgrounds for billionaire hedge fund managers and corporate donor…"
"The public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive; f…"
"The United States ... celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns o…"
"Rutgers, like most American universities, operates as a corporation. Senior administrators, who often have a Master o…"
"Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar of money shall be appropriated to the support of any sectaria…"
"The public defunding of universities, along with their seizure by corporations and the uber rich, is part of the slow…"
"The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a nation. If we are to have another c…"
"As the primary step, therefore, to our advancement in all that has marked our progress in the past century, I suggest…"
"I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means within their constitutional powers to promote and encourag…"
"A third place to build the Great Society is in the classrooms of America. There your children's lives will be shaped.…"