"... I think that for two reasons, it will be extremely difficult to maintain public educational institutions that choose students based solely on intellectual performance in today's United States--much less to create new ones. There are two related reasons for this. One is that with inequality at historic highs--and with inequality more and more correlated to levels of educational achievement--the stakes of getting into elite institutions seem so high that political pressure to make them broadly available will increase. Fewer and fewer Americans are satisfied with being ordinary--and not without cause. The second reason is that at least two generations have now been socialized to value group identity over individual identity. The idea that we can create a society in which every individual can rise according to their talents has given way to a vision of competing groups, in which the wrong groups have been winning for too long. Significantly, that view is strongest within American higher education. This will work to the disadvantage of the kind of young person that Boston Latin, Bronx Science and the rest were designed for. Writing Baseball Greatness, I discovered that among 20,000 men who had played in the major leagues since 1900, about 100--.5 per cent--were much better than anyone else. I think the same is true of any complex field of endeavor, and certainly of intellectual endeavor. A tiny minority of very gifted people is, I truly believe, scattered almost at random throughout our society. The meritocratic schools were the best means of identifying them and allowing them to develop their talents for the good of us all. The example of Jonas Salk is one of many suggesting that they worked...." DK
Professor
Here are some additional comments re your last paragraph.
Citations are included for those who bother with them.
Inequality is not at either historic or prehistoric highs. Pace Piketty, Rodrik, DK, et al.
Inequality is not more and more correlated with levels of educational achievement, but rather with factors like race, ethnicity, and population numbers, which your post also itself appears to demonstrate. Cf. also Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Race, Ch 8. R Collins, The Credential Society.
Athletic talent is not randomly distributed throughout all individuals either here or on the planet, but rather quite strikingly by race breeding and ethnicity. See Sowell, op. cit., Michael Lewis, The Blind Side.
"The same" is not true of any complex field of endeavor, but the opposite as noted above.
We never had a true meritocracy here except in the minds of NYT pundits like David Brooks.
See R Collins, The Credential Society.
All the best
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