Harvard Didn’t Destroy America – The Atlantic
How the Ivy League broke America
Trying to take credit for destroying America is an Ivy League thing. I agree with David Brooks' criticism of a system that ranks and sorts based on test results. But long before James Conant became president of Harvard University, standardized tests were popular in the United States. The danger in blaming the Ivy League for today’s overreliance on blunt ranking and ranking tools is that we may be tempted to wait for the Ivy League to figure this out. Instead, let’s agree that we also need leaders who thrive at local community colleges, regional universities, and in apprenticeships. The genius is there—as a high school teacher, I see this every day. But the message our current system sends is that if you score poorly on a standardized multiple-choice test of English, you don't have the skills.
Erin Crisp
Knoxville, Tennessee.
Most of the elite schools criticized by David Brooks already assess the “whole person.” Cognitive metrics are only a small part of admissions. These institutions invest heavily in assessing applicants’ non-cognitive skills, and the results are arguably worse.
Families who want to attend top colleges must strategically position their children to be well-rounded applicants. They choose extracurricular activities and write admissions essays that demonstrate empathy, curiosity and the ability to overcome obstacles — all of which Brooks hopes the institutions will assess. This approach further benefits families with the financial means to pay for educational consultants, private tutoring, and enrichment activities. We do need an alternative to meritocracy. Unfortunately, Brooks' solution has been swallowed up by the elite machine.
Pete Marshall
British stone. lewis parker minnesota
Why is it that the central force controlling our economy and society today is Ivy League admissions offices, rather than the demands of global capitalism, the transition to a service economy, or the increasing value of symbolic thinking in these contexts? The world has changed to reward a certain kind of intelligence. That may be good or bad, but it’s not primarily the fault of a handful of elite schools—it’s true in every advanced economy.
Andrew Bartholomew
New York City, New York
It is not utopian to imagine an American public school system and society that recognizes the skills and contributions of mechanics and debaters. They did it in Europe: Bronze plaques on London's Tower Bridge bear the names of platers, riveters and cooks. In America, such a prestigious public placement on an iconic building would only serve as a tribute to big corporate donors.
Those pursuing vocational education should be seen as a central group in meritocracy debates rather than as an afterthought.
Sheila Clary
West Stockbridge, Massachusetts
David Brooks is right to say America is broken, but he's pointing the finger at the wrong culprits. There is nothing wrong with colleges evaluating academic merit and selecting students who will best benefit from the education they provide. The social problem is an economic system that gives almost all the benefits of growth to the already wealthy rather than to the working class. The real predators destroying the American dream are the economic elite, not the cultural elite.
Stuart Kaufman
Bell, Del.
Much of what David Brooks describes resonates with me. I attended community college on a full Pell grant. My parents are both blue-collar workers. I loved school and I loved learning, but my parents couldn't afford extracurricular activities and Advanced Placement tests—I never even took the SAT. I always felt like there was an elite study class that I could never get into.
In many ways, I was right. I've been rejected from hundreds of jobs, only to find out later that the successful candidate came from an elite school. This instilled in me what Brooks calls the sixth “deadly sin” of meritocracy—“disdain for the system.” I now teach part-time and my students are generally much wealthier than I was before. I worry that my anger makes me less willing to understand the real pressures they face.
I voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2024. Over the course of eight years, I attended college and then graduate school—living proof that education shapes opinions and beliefs. However, I have far more sympathy for working-class voters in my home state of Texas than I do for elite voters in New York City.
Catherine Chase
Brooklyn, New York
I am 92 years old. I attended a public high school in Cincinnati. When I told the president that I wanted to go to one of the best liberal arts colleges, he recommended Harvard—and he told me that Harvard would admit up to seven students from my class. He looked through my records, noticed that I was Jewish, and revised his statement to say that Harvard would never admit more than three Jews. Harvard admitted seven students from my class, including me, six of whom were Jewish. When I arrived in the fall of 1950, the quota system had apparently disappeared—Jews made up a large portion of my class. At a freshman meeting, the freshman director proudly told us that our class’s average SAT score was the highest among all college freshman classes in the country. I often saw James Conant walking in Harvard Yard, not knowing that he was the one who made it possible for me to be there.
John J. Frank Jr.
Cincinnati, Ohio
David Brooks replied:
I appreciate your thoughtful responses. I would like to highlight an area of disagreement and an area that requires further exploration. Pete Marshall said “cognitive indicators are only a small part” of getting admitted to elite schools. I'd say they're foundational — the average SAT score for Harvard freshmen is about 1520. You must meet these metrics before considering any other qualities. Andrew Bartholomew believes that the real problem is global capitalism in the information age. There is a lot of truth to this. I do think that universities produce “knowledge workers” because intellectual life has become commodified. Students and workers alike are caught up in the same system that expects us to live a life dedicated to work. But my point is that our system doesn't even produce ideal capitalists: huge numbers of new employees have to leave companies because companies don't know what to look for in applicants. They choose qualities that meritocracy can quantify, but they don’t matter. Intelligence is overrated, temperament and desire are underestimated.
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behind the cover
In this month's cover story, “The Sociopathic Century,” Derek Thompson explores how Americans spend so much time alone and what that loneliness means for our personalities, our politics, and even our relationship with reality . Illustrator Max Guther created a series of characters engaged in solitary activities for the cover. Guser's figures are arranged on a blank field, evoking a country where people prefer their own company to the company of others.
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