<p>Read [url=<a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007000%5Dthis%5B/url">http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007000]this[/url</a>]. It's absolutely hilarious, but more importantly, it reveals the depths to which the educational establishment has fallen. Its conclusion should be mind-bogglingly obvious, but I don't think that enough people have taken it seriously.</p>
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Judging college admissions--or scholarships--by such fuzzy standards is absurd, not just because it destroys any notion of a meritocracy but also because it leads to a certain narcissism. Thus the contestants on "The Scholar" routinely say that they plan to change the world--really.</p>
<p>The level of self-obsession reaches its height, though, when Melissa is asked what famous person, dead or alive, she'd like to have dinner with. "Plato," she answers, noting that she has read his story about the cave and wants to discuss her own "process of self-discovery" with him. I'm sure Plato would have been fascinated.
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