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College admission - the chance to
position oneself for "success" through the acquisition of
the "right" college degree - looms large for increasing
numbers of high school students. Particularly because
selective colleges are perceived to be one of the
destinations on the road to success, we want to do
everything possible to help the students we enroll make the
most of their opportunities.
It is important
to remember that access to higher education around the world
is at present limited to a lucky few. Those fortunate
enough to enjoy such a privilege have a responsibility to
use their talents to provide expanded opportunities for
future generations. Our young alumni and alumnae have been
successful in meeting the formidable challenges they have
faced since college. But they continue to remind us that
the rigors of competing in the new world economy impose high
standards on everyone. They do not (nor do we) tell today's
students to "slack off" and achieve less. Recent graduates
advise today's high school and college students to prepare
themselves emotionally as well as academically.
It is worth
noting that extraordinary achievements are never based on
emulating someone else's achievements, but on some
immeasurable combination of (a) marching to one's own
specific and unique drummer and (b) accidentally - perhaps
unconsciously - doing something that captures the
Zeitgeist in new and unexpected ways. Many of those
whom our society considers successful either used their own
ingenuity to give the public a product or image it
desperately wanted, or happened to catch a hot wave of the
time, or (ideally) both.
While their
achievement stands as an ideal for which others strive,
others cannot by definition duplicate that achievement
because it is induplicable. The only road to real success
is to become more fully oneself, to succeed in the field and
on the terms that one defines for oneself.
So, following
some prescribed path to “success” may have the unintended
effect of delaying a student’s finding herself and
succeeding on her own terms. We should all have the right
to gape with awe at Tiger Woods' achievements or Yo-Yo Ma's
musical triumphs, while at the same time achieving our own
more modest ones in our own fields and ways: finding hominid
bones that shift our conception of paleontology, or
composing smooth jazz melody, or tracing the rise and
decline of Roman gentes. Parents and students
alike profit from redefining success as fulfillment of the
student's own aims, even those yet to be discovered.
The fact remains
that there is something very different about growing up
today. Some students and families are suffering from the
frenetic pace, while others are coping but enjoying their
lives less than they would like. Even those who are doing
extraordinarily well, the "happy warriors" of today's
ultra-competitive landscape, are in danger of emerging a bit
less human as they try to keep up with what may be
increasingly unrealistic expectations.
The good news is
that students themselves offer helpful suggestions about how
best to handle the challenges they face. They learn at an
early age how to cope with both victory and defeat and with
the formidable demands placed on them by adults and peers.
In part because of all the obstacles that confront them from
the earliest stages of their lives, this generation has
emerged generally more mature, sophisticated, and, at their
best, better prepared to cope with the demands of the
twenty-first century.
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