September 5, 2010
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Elitism
The main reason I despise the way our society’s education system works can be exemplified by this account of how Justice Scalia chooses clerks:
” “By and large,” Scalia said during the April 24 law school appearance, “I’m going to be picking from the law schools that basically are the hardest to get into. They admit the best and the brightest, and they may not teach very well, but you can’t make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. If they come in the best and the brightest, they’re probably going to leave the best and the brightest, OK?”The story says the data support Scalia’s comment. In the last six years, about half of the Supreme Court’s 220 law clerks attended Yale or Harvard law schools, respectively ranked first and second by U.S. News. About 50 others came from Chicago, Stanford, Virginia and Columbia. None hailed from American University’s Washington College of Law. Scalia acknowledged there are some exceptions, citing the case of Jeffrey Sutton, now a federal appeals judge on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Cincinnati, according to the Times account. Sutton was first hired by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., and then worked for Scalia.
“I wouldn’t have hired Jeff Sutton,” Scalia said. “For God’s sake, he went Ohio State! And he’s one of the very best law clerks I ever had.”“
What a sad world. How many Jeff Suttons never get to clerk for a Supreme Court Justice and as such never gain the credentials to be considered at the highest echelons of elite society because they never did hold a high profile clerkship. Maybe if boneheads like Scalia actually took the time to look at more than what school a person attended there’d be a lot more Jeff Suttons in positions of power and our court system would work a lot better.
Basically, isn’t Scalia just admitting here that he’s too damned lazy to evaluate the merits of various candidates and just wants to let the law school admissions process do all his work for him? And the irony is, he’s trusting these law school admissions processes even at the same time he’s condemning the schools for poorly educating the students! If they suck at educating so much, what makes him think he can trust their selectivity in admissions? How does he know they aren’t just passing the buck on down to the undergraduate school admissions who in turn might be basing their decisions primarily on other ridiculous and arbitrary characteristics. That sounds like a great way to determine the future of our legal system!
And I actually think the courts are one of the better, more merit based power structures in our country. Certainly rising through the ranks of the media, politics, government bureaucracies, and of course the corporate hierarchy are substantially worse. At least admissions are at least partially based on something you yourself are doing that is at least mildly related to your ability in the field at hand.. In most of these other systems it’s who your friends and family are and how well you network that counts even more than what school you managed to get accepted into.
My roommate told me a story about one of her teachers in her school who told the story of one of her sons or nephews or something who basically was able to retire as a millionaire by age 40 primarily on the basis of how well he networked. He kept getting offered really good high paying jobs because of the people he knew. This was supposed to be an inspiring story for the students in the class I guess.
Sure really inspiring. All this education stuff doesn’t matter. Just make a lot of friends, especially rich and well connected friends, and all will be well!
And if you are shy, introverted, or just don’t like people very much. Oh well. Too bad for you. Your hard work and intellect is nothing compared to their l33t social skillz!
Meritocracy for the win.
Comments (9)
As I was reading it, I was thinking the thought you ended up hitting in that it is a sign he is just lazy.
it’s mostly luck.
I was in the Army, and I had two jobs. One was dreadfully demanding and the other one was paradise. I was lucky, but I was unlucky time-wise. If only… I think that’s the problem with the modern world. Only.
“they may not teach very well”
So when those same colleges charge sky-high tuition, they aren’t even bothering to give students their money’s worth. Oy vey.
As soon as we get those goddamn epileptic personalities all destined to doom, the world will be a better place, I promise. They’ll be doomed, and we’ll be free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTltKbfvnfI
If we could put them into place. THe place makes the person. It’s the glamour they all go for, the prestige, though you didn’t use the word. You are an “if only.” I love you, and that’s the end.
When I hire people, I don’t care if I get the best, or if I am creating a meritocracy, or if I am being fair. I just want someone who can do the job, and if there is an easy way to find that person, I will use the easy way, even if it is not fair.
And I am not alone in my hiring practices.
It’s all about money and “prestige.” The latter is usually very vague, and usually worthless in practical terms.
it’s not about what you know, it’s who you know. sadly this quote is proving to be more and more true the older i get.
i guess i know where they’re coming from – would you rather hire someone (from what you can see on their resume) from harvard or a state university? i’d probably pick the first : i do agree they should look at a lot more than just the school though.
@coconutjuicefrommexico - having had experience studying at a State school and at an elite school I honestly wouldn’t say there’s much difference in the educational experience. Heck I’ve even seen some community colleges whose teachers teach some subjects better than the elite universities. So I would put zero extra weight behind the fact that someone attended Harvard. The fact that they attended Harvard just means that they knew how to work the admissions process and were diligent during High School.
I don’t know how it works for law schools having not attended them, but Scalia himself suggests the elite schools teach no better than the non-elite making me think not putting any weight behind the law school someone attends also makes sense.
But it might well depend on the subject matter. It might be different for scientists or for doctors or some other field.