“We have tried aristocracy. We have tried meritocracy. Now it’s time to try democracy.”

A lovely, reasonable takedown of the systems that keep elite education in place. I was expecting a kind of snarky, student-blaming treatise but this was almost a tender plea.

Some choice features of this book are:
— an interesting history of how hereditary elitism became meritocracy in schools
— snippets from brief ethnographies of former elite students
— an impassioned argument for the classic “liberal arts education,” in a section called Great Books

While the premise may seem kind of tired / obvious, WD’s suggestions are not. How about we admit students to elite colleges randomly? — being one :)

Very lovely read. Indispensable for those trying to break out of a system designed to keep them rich, powerful but somehow still dispossessed.