This (very long) article is making the rounds, and it is *spot on*. Higher education lost the script decades ago but social policy blindly followed.

My take from 20 years of varying roles in higher ed in the thread… 👇

https://apple.news/AQzw6PxTcRde5Zq1iPpGBWg

How the Ivy League Broke America — The Atlantic

The meritocracy isn’t working. We need something new. November 14, 2024 Updated at 12:00 p.m. ET on December 13, 2024 Follow The Atlantic Every coherent society has a social ideal—an image of what the superior person looks like. In America, from the late 19th century until sometime in the 1950s, the superior person was the Well-Bred Man. Such a man was born into one of the old WASP families that dominated the elite social circles on Fifth Avenue, in New York City; the Main Line, outside

Higher Ed: Stop with the fetishizing of the “elite”schools (Ivy+). The “standard” (largely liberal arts) model isn’t the only one, and yet the curriculum across most colleges and universities is shockingly similar. We should be trying and testing lots of different models and approaches.
For K-12: College prep is not the “one true path” (spoiler: there isn’t one). Honestly, there are lots of students in college who would’ve been better served by an alternate career development/training pathway. Career Tech Ed (CTE) is making a comeback, and we (even higher ed) should celebrate that.
All levels: Project-based learning is not some new-fangled approach; decades of research and curricula supporting its efficacy. Doing real projects with real conditions and outcomes (not superficial toy environments) should be the standard. The world is so much more complex than a lab sandbox.

I should probably expand this into a longer piece, but I’m going to stop here for now.

Also, I’m a bit mortified to find myself in violent agreement with David Brooks. Another sign I’m getting old… 😅