[FRIAM] Harvard

[Gary Schiltz]

I didn't take part in the conversation Frank alludes to, nor do I want
details about it, but I just want to say that it pisses me off that it has
become politically correct to disparage folks who have done well for
themselves and gone to good schools. I myself went to a state supported
"cow college" (Kansas State University), so nobody can accuse me of being
part of the "elite". I don't begrudge people getting the best education
they can get, even if I had neither the financial resources nor the grades
to get into such schools. A degree from a top-tier institution does not
automatically confer "authority", but it certainly doesn't weaken ones
credentials either. I suspect there is indeed a high degree of correlation
between academic prowess of an institution and the expertise of its alumni.

On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 12:43 PM, Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com> wrote:

> As many of you are aware, during a discussion of the beverage tax I
> mentioned that my wife studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
> which stimulated a small discussion of argument by authority.  During an
> in-person discussion at coffee there was a similar dynamic.  I always
> wondered why my wife never told people she went there.  When I met her she
> said she went to college "in Boston". Now I understand better.  When I tell
> people that I went to Berkeley the most common reaction is, "Were you there
> during the Free Speech Movement?".  Harvard seems to be different.  When my
> wife saw "The Social Network" the parts about the clubs and going to
> Newport during the weekend made her feel ill.  Friends, lots of perfectly
> nice, normal people go to Harvard.  Relax.
>
> Frank Wimberly
> Phone (505) 670-9918
>
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