Defending the Value of a Berklee Education
One of the issues raised about elite education, or Berklee education, is that it alienates humans because students from elite schools tend to think that people from low social classes are mediocre. Students from elite schools only develop analytic form of intelligence, which tends to overlook the value of others (Deresiewicz 2). However, elite schools are usually on the forefront to educate their students on how to relate to other people, regardless of their social classes. Majority of Americans are concerned on gaining meritocracy that is associated to good governance, and not meritocracy to segregate low social classes. If a Berklee education cannot offer humanistic education then it has failed the society where the products of such schools are expected to work. Luckily, the issue of equality in enrolment has been tackled through offering scholarship to bright students whose families cannot afford to pay hefty fees. The society has also encounter elite individuals coming out to assist the less fortunate in society, and this does not happen without communication.
Elite education teaches students to believe that measures of intelligence, as well as academic achievements, can be equated to measures of importance in metaphysical sense. According to Deresiewicz, an elite education trains students for the life they would lead after school (4). Students in elite schools are offered second chances after failing in the first chance, but in non-elite schools, students do not have chances to retrace their steps once they fell in their first attempts. However, this does not work in all elite schools because intelligence can never be equal in all students. Some students in elite schools may also suffer after school because if they believe that the institution’s name can determine their future. Although some companies tend to focus on the kind of schools that the potential candidates attended, intelligent candidates are favored, regardless of the schools they attended. Sometimes it is the society that tends to equate intelligence with elite education, thus, students from elite schools should not be blamed for raising their intellectual bar. Society tends to legitimize power to meritocracy by claiming that leaders occupy their position because they possess the highest level of intelligence as compared to other individuals in society.
Berklee education has been blamed for being overwhelmingly anti-intellectual. Students in elite schools forget that being intellectual is not equal to being smart in class. It is no wonder to see a smart student who is not intelligent. Students should not be blamed for this; system should. Systems in elite schools forget to advise students that the rationale for education is to enhance the minds, not making careers (Deresiewicz 6). On the contrary, intellectuality is highly emphasized in elite schools because society expects much from students who have attended such schools. Students who attend elite schools come from prominent business people and leaders who are considered intelligent. In addition, students from economically dominant classes, who are the majority in the Berklee education, receive education that encourage active use of mind that is capable of adapting to economic, political, and cultural systems (Levinson, Cookson, and Sadovnik 236). Elites are usually people of above- average; hence, the schools that they attend do not expect them to be below certain intellectual level. Elite schools should not be solely blamed for lack of intellectuality, as students also have a role to play in enhancing their intellectuality.
Works Cited
Deresiewicz, William. “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education.” iSites. Harvard University, 15 Sept. 2015.Web. 13 Nov. 2015 http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1446092.files/Education%20Essays/Disadvantages%20of%20Higher%20Ed.pdf
Levinson, David, Peter Cookson, and Alan R. Sadovnik. Education and Sociology: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 2002. Print.