In his recent book, Fredrik deBoer tells an anecdote about one of his freshman writing students. Bright but indifferent to academics, the student asked deBoer—not rhetorically—“What else am I supposed to do?”
“I couldn’t answer,” writes deBoer, whom you may know from sharp essays first posted on his blog, such as “The Iron Law of Institutions and the Left” and “Planet of Cops,” which criticized liberals from the left. “What path was there for someone in his late teens if not through college?” No doubt such a student should have a path to an honorable and productive life that aligns with his talents, rather than being kept on the academic moving walkway that goes . . . where?
In the United States today, the academically talented are prized above the unintelligent—unfairly, deBoer asserts—because, for the most part, you’re born as smart as you are going to be. Early environmental influences apart, no parental love, pedagogical attention, or standardized test cramming will help much. “We know that not everyone is equal in ability, and we know that this will never change,” deBoer writes.
Thus, he argues, an ostensibly “meritocratic” society would be extremely cruel in denying status and wealth to the less intelligent. A truly meritocratic society would be even crueler. “[A] system that doles out wealth and hardship based on academic ability is inherently and forever a rigged game.” And who can argue that dignified work shouldn’t be available to those who aren’t right for college, those who may be stronger, gentler, more generous, possessed of who knows what other virtues that many clever people conspicuously lack?
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