"The best is the best..." (Quiller-Couch)

.....I have a former student of mine who back in antiquity was short, thin, and somewhat shy. He is now retired and we do communicate with each other, and once in a while when he comes down here to visit his mom, we go to breakfast or to lunch. He is now tall, well-built and quite athletic. He and his son recently won a father-son golf tournament. He may have been my student at one time, but now that I've met him all grown up, I love him like a brother. Once in a blue moon, he takes exception to something I write in my blog, and yesterday was no exception for him to take an exception. He is no longer shy. I think it would be of interest to others who read this to read his comment on my blog yesterday--and my response:

.....Doc, I take exception to the "lesser school" designation. I worked in "higher" education for almost 40 years and found many of those Ivy League graduates to be pompous, arrogant and intellectually and academically overrated. Many believe the hardest part of an Ivy education is getting in (and we know how many ways there are these days to accomplish that) while many of your smaller "lesser" schools like Haverford, Swarthmore, Dickinson, Bard, et all offer smaller classes all taught by full time professors who aren't wrapped up in outside grants and turning things over to TA's.

.....HI Bob: You miss my point, entirely. I agree that you can find some Ivy League graduates who are “pompous, arrogant, etc, etc,” but obviously I was not referring to that type of graduate. Why would I? I agree that there are wonderful, and excellent schools outside of the Ivy League perimeter. Of course there are. I do not mean to denigrate the type of school you mention—I wouldn’t do that--but I was taking exception to the people I’ve met who are so concerned about having only Ivy Leaguers on the Supreme court—and so what is so bad about that? It took some time & work for them to get there.

.....By a “lesser” school, I simply meant one without the reputation of the Ivy League, not one with the solid credentials of the schools you mention which may be just as good as the Ivys-- not like "Benedict Arnold U." However, if my child had a choice of a scholarship to Harvard or C.W. Post. I’m sending him to the former no matter how good the latter is. ( I taught there.) There is no doubt, at least in my mind, that he would have a huge advantage upon graduation for employment—and that may be due to employers’ “arrogance”. For who would bear “…the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes?" And if I’m looking for a doctor for my child—or me-- I’m going to want the best doctor I could find, and so I’m going to want to look at his credentials. And in school, I'd want him to have Phil Bergovoy. (So would I). And I, myself, could never settle for anything less than to be the best--and so I try to abide by the concept of applying ruthless personal standards of excellence in my life. If this makes me an “elitist” so be it.

.....You and I, young man, see the world from different perspectives. I went through a war and when I fly a combat mission, I want a pilot who was at the top of his class at Naval Air School; I want a Navigator who was at the top of his class; I want a mechanic who was at the top of his class; I want an ordnance man who was at the top of his class; I want a radio operator, a belly gunner, a top turret gunner and a waist gunner who were at the top of their classes. Of course, I am not always going to get what I want, but if I don’t come close with guys like these, I fear that my chances of surviving the war diminish critically.