My friend graduated as valedictorian of her high school class and was admitted to the Conservatory by Robert Fountain personally after he heard her sing. Nevertheless, she needed to develop confidence in herself, as young people can be somewhat insecure and fragile. A bit of encouragement can go a long way to help good kids find their way. In my view, college acceptance should not be just an impersonal opportunity to sink or swim, but should involve a commitment of college resources to help all students rise to the challenge presented. When I was a freshman in 1956, we got rid of hazing and reached for a more civilized and humane ideal of student interrelationship.
Mental toughness is valuable, but debate about the best way to achieve it is still possible.
Survival by cold, hard, impersonal intellectuality is not much different than survival by the sword, as if the job of education were to create soldiers of the mind, just as brutal as soldiers of the sword. As I have watched my son grow to college age at an intensely academic and athletic school, it has seemed important to get away from cutthroat competition and help improve the quality of everyone's educational experience through mutual support. Kindness is not always easy, and the greatly needy may want more than can be given. They can even become angry when the vessel of apparent bounty is exhausted. Human relationship can be complicated, even messy, but rigorous intellectuality is not a good substitute for humanity.