<p>All of that makes perfect sense, Weatherby, if you measure the returns-on-investment purely in dollars. If boarding school and/or college are meant to provide a gateway to wealth and nothing more, avoid them.</p>
<p>I’m not sure who’s going to be running the particle accelerator or developing new miracle drugs, though. Entrepreneurs who didn’t go to college? I don’t think so.</p>
<p>The next time I need someone to cut me open for heart surgery, I’ll pick the 1% consumer of academic resources, rather than a Chief Imagineer like Steve Jobs.</p>
<p>Again, as D’yer intimates, the purpose of a great education is a great education. Education is definitely correlated to the ability to support oneself adequately, but wealth is another matter entirely, and education should not be confused as the means to that end.</p>
<p>Then, why all the venom towards the 1%?</p>
<p>I thought the article was pure BS.</p>
<p>The 1% obviously do not take most of the seats at the so-called 1% schools and even if they did, so what?</p>
<p>An interesting piece from The Phillipian (which I came across because another article was linked to in another thread):</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://phillipian.net/articles/2012/01/26/build-bonds-not-resum-s]Build”>http://phillipian.net/articles/2012/01/26/build-bonds-not-resum-s]Build</a> Bonds, Not Resum</p>
<p>I wonder if the people complaining about “1% education” would be willing to follow their own principles to a logical conclusion.</p>
<p>According to [Global</a> Rich List](<a href=“http://www.globalrichlist.com/]Global”>http://www.globalrichlist.com/) any American earning over $50,000 is in the top 1% relative to the entire world. That is half of all Americans (and nearly all Americans are in the top 10%). </p>
<p>Would it make sense for Americans to slow down and reduce opportunities for their kids so the rest of the world can catch up? Are we to believe that Americans provide the amount of education that they do because of a character defect… because they are selfish and self-absorbed as argued in the NYT? Or… is education simply a Good Thing and wealthy countries do it as much as they can because it is inherently valuable?</p>
<p>“Or… is education simply a Good Thing and wealthy countries do it as much as they can because it is inherently valuable?”</p>
<p>Well, I’d say democratic countries do value education for its own sake, if for no other reason than to have an informed and as a result – one would hope – electorate that is attuned to its intelligence as a basis for voting.</p>
<p>Now, dictatorial/authoritarian regimes like nothing more than to keep their populations uneducated and uninformed, so that even if they did wanted to better their oppressed lives they wouldn’t have the intellectual capital to even make a case for it. It’s no suprise that the intelligentia of such countries get harassed, thrown in jail or ‘disappear’ altogether, being the few who are informed…</p>
<p>Excellent point.</p>