SERIUZ ARTICLE HERE ABOUT ELITISM, sorry no laughs
Ok so I just read that article on elite schools which was out on sat. (Groan, another article on elitism? What's new?)
Now one question that I always think of while reading such articles is--
why is it always the elite school students who cannot connect to the so-called masses?
Why is it always them who lack empathy and humility? And then later,
why are they the ones who are always in a "bubblewrap", blind and deaf to the "reality" of life? (I quote, "These are people who live for years without having to step outside their comfort zone, leading a bubble-wrapped existence. The sooner that wrap is removed, the better.")
The reality of life isn't explicitly defined. However, the author did say, "My work as a journalist also quickly brought me crashing down to earth. Loftiness goes out of the window when you have to talk to everyone from politicians to cancer patients to victims of natural disaster." I assume the reality of life here is disease, disaster and probably poverty as well. The idea is that because elite school students normally get into good occupations and normally mix around with the same circles, they never really understand what the outside world is like.
And then of course the assumption is the vice versa, non-elite school students know about this reality. Why? Now a very elitist thinking underlies this assumption which is what is ironic about such articles. The idea is that they mix around with the "lower" rungs of society who define what reality is like, because most of them do not get society-defined top-notch occupations. Disclaimer, I am merely stating what I feel is the assumption they have, not my personal opinion. And because of this, they are assumed to have more empathy and humility than your average elite school student, and also, when elite school students fail to connect with other people, it is their fault for being too engrossed in their own world.
Does anyone smell anything fishy here?
Something I'm wondering, who is not engrossed in his own world after all? Does your non-elite school student go out of their way to mix around with people not in their normal sphere of contact? Presumably they don't need to, since they are assumed to be in touch with "reality" already. And why is it so important that elite school students know this "reality"? This is an extension of the elitist assumption just now: top-notch occupations include government occupations, which makes their responsibility heavier.
I'm not saying this isn't valid. It's important for the government to know what it is like across all the classes of society. Right now I'm just curious about this whole blame game.
Let us now trace this blame game back to its origins: why is it that elite school students somehow get into a bubble wrap in the first place?
This, on further thought, is about the same question I kept having in my head when I was in the best class in P6. Somehow all the teachers had this altogether different standard of behaviour for us to keep, and almost all the lesson time we had was spent lecturing us on acts like, get this, walking around in bedok interchange. This is supposedly a very delinquent act because we were supposed to be at home 24/7 mugging. The question I had then was: Why is it that something such as
best class meant we had to have the best behaviour when we only got in because of our grades?
And this is how it was like in RGS: "The public have phoned in to complain about you girls sitting on the MRT train and talking loudly." "We have received a phonecall about one of our girls being intimate with a boy on the MRT train." "As a RGS girl such behaviour is unacceptable."
Herein lies society's assumption: with good grades, you are expected to have the best behaviour. An educated population has a lower crime rate etc because you understand the consequences of your actions, so this is translated to this stereotype as well. And it works, because such expectations have a bearing on your perception of yourself. But what does it mean when society has such double standards? ...Society itself
is elitist. We knew that all along, didn't we. Why not expect your neighbourhood school students to behave properly as well? Why give them greater leeway? Because of their family backgrounds, which are supposedly generally worse off? Therefore it's not their fault?
I'm not saying that it is their fault. It is true that elite school students are more well off, have less family problems, are less likely to be from abusive backgrounds. It's a vicious cycle here. Because of this they have higher expectations heaped on them, because of these expectations they behave better, and then they associate with the "better" crowd and do not understand "reality", and so do not have "empathy" and cannot connect with the rest. But hey, it's not their fault too, stop writing all those articles about the snobbishness of elite school students- maybe they are just as awkward as anyone else. Maybe even more.
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far and wee
you and i together mysteriously and always floating
Tuesday, April 6
3:18 PM
