Original_To:  BITNET%"edpolyan@asuacad"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edpolyan
Date:         Fri, 31 Jul 1992 12:33:00 MDT
              <EDPOLYAN@ASUACAD.BITNET>
From:         ADAVIS@CUDENVER.BITNET
Subject:      Coles on Narcissism and Ind Schools

I absolutely agree with Gene that the choice movement should
be attacked as "one manifestation of powerful economic
forces that have shaped access to privilege and power, not
as an educational reform idea rationalized by metaphors of
capitalist competition and cliches about private sector
superiority."  In practice, typical proposals (e.g., to give
parents $1,000 towards the cost of tuition in any school,
public or private) simply subsidize the rich and provide no
real choice to the poor.  But I think this conclusion stands
apart from Coles's attack on independent schools as
institutions that exacerbate juvenile narcissism by
conveying privilege.

Narcissism is by no means restricted to the rich and
powerful in this country.  It permeates popular culture.
Anyone who teachers in a public high school, urban or
suburban, is reminded daily how private most students'
aspirations are.  Almost none will express a desire to be a
teacher, politician, religious leader, or scientist.
Instead, those from working class communities want to be
models and professional athletes, while the more affluent
speak of business school and corporation law.  Coles's
complaint of "self-centeredness, immersion in one's own
fantasies, wishes, interests, and aspirations with no
redeeming interest in others, or in the problems and needs
of the world" is as descriptive of the inner city poor as it
is the cloistered rich.

The counter to narcissism in elite schools used to be the
reminder of noblesse oblige, the belief that position and
power convey moral responsibilities.  John F. Kennedy's
admonition to "Ask not what your country can do for you
rather what you can do for your country" was not at all at
odds with the ethos conveyed by his teachers at Choate, one
of the three or four most prestigious New England boarding
preparatory high schools.  It is an ethos that is still
alive and well at the Yale Law School, one reason that so
many of its graduates enter public service.  It may be that
Reaganism elevated the narcissism of privilege to such
respectability that many elite institutions may now pander
to the more petty aspirations of students.  But I'm not
convinced that it is inherently wrong to identify students
of particular promise and motivation and nuture them with
special coaching and resources not readily available to
everyone.  Teachers of such students have a duty to remind
them all the while that they have a responsibility to return
something to the community.  If there were no Yale Law
School, the country would be the worse for it.

I also treasure the diversity of educational experience that
independent schools encourage.  Montessori schools, Waldorf
schools, Black Muslim academies, private schools for the
performing arts, experiential high schools -- these places
are not about narcissism and young people who "lack an
interest in anyone or anything other than their own
particular rhythms and thoughts and fantasies."  On the
contrary, they are often places shaped by the coherent
vision of eccentric educators who wanted to create a vital
alternative to the mind-numbing blandness of institutions
who must generate mission statements through public
consensus.  Many independent schools actively seek diversity
in their students and have aggressive scholarship programs.
The fact that they are independently governed and and may
have selective admissions policies, or try to groom their
students for positions of leadership, doesn't bother me.  I
would not propose to support them with tax dollars, but I
would like to see them thrive.

Gene, thanks for sharing the Coles interview and providing
rich food for thought.

Alan Davis
University of Colorado at Denver
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