Attending an Ivy League institution as an American elite in the 21st century elicits a different connotation than in the previous century. Then, one could be an elite with all the snobbishness that came with it, yet still be respected for understanding how the world worked. We once relied on intellectual elites to provide answers to the country’s and the globe’s most troubling questions. Now, students who graduate from the country’s eight Ivy League universities too often obtain the snobbish elite mentality without possessing much understanding.
The authors of the new book, “Slacking: A Guide to Ivy League Miseducation,” pinpoint precisely why that has become the case. Authors Adam Kissel, Rachel Cambre, and Madison Doan have gone through the core undergraduate catalogue of our nation’s Ivy League institutions and laid bare the utter foolishness these schools are engaging in.
Certainly there was little doubt about the decline of these institutions regarding the rigor of its curriculum. The recent student protests combined with spineless school leadership only highlighted that decline. Additionally, the sweeping DEI programs and the illogical explanations for their existence further highlight the decline. “Slacking” only adds more context to a narrative that would be a comedy if it wasn’t so tragic.
Cornell, Yale, Pennsylvania, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, and Brown—those are the schools placed in the crosshairs of these authors. But these authors hardly have to formulate intellectual potshots. The schools have formulated those on their own.
What’s the Problem?
The price tag, though, for these schools should be deterrent enough. The authors claim that some of these schools charge as much as $80,000 per year. Considering the types of classes offered to these undergraduates, it seems that it is less about the education received than the name of the institution one gets to place on their resume. But isn’t this the crux of the problem? While the book infers that students who apply for such classes won’t be truly prepared for the real world, it is actually the real world that has adjusted its reality to suit these students. New industries based on climate control, population control, class, gender, and race have only grown. Indeed, the safe spaces that have been built within these educational institutions have now been built within public and private industries. The climate control industry is probably the largest example, with its alarmism creating a demand for wind and solar farms and electric vehicles.Is All Lost?
Ultimately, this short book is a tour of laughs. The “brilliant” members of these schools’ faculty and staff have written their own jokes, though sadly at the expense of their students. From courses about the “roots of the prejudice against darkness” (literally nighttime) and a Harvard course denigrating Harvard University to learning how to “decolonize French food” and singing through the educational morass of Cardi B., Beyoncé, or Bad Bunny, there seem to be plenty of jesters working in these royal courts.
Not all is lost, though. The classics are still prevalent and available. The educational rigor is still there, but one must wonder if what was once our nation’s educational foundations are actually being fully replaced. This book indicates that there truly are too many useless, yet exorbitantly expensive options for incoming freshmen to choose from. Furthermore, I noticed the authors pointed out the many anti-capitalist and anti-right courses, but were apparently unable to locate any anti-socialist and anti-left courses. In practice, there should be neither (or, at least, there should be both).
Along with the extensive list of promising and worthwhile courses in these schools, Columbia University actually stood out among the Ivy Leagues. As the authors note, “There is no room for slackers at Columbia.” With that, however, the authors do address how it was possible that the school could become the site of recent antisemitism and lawlessness. They suggest it’s not the undergraduate curriculum, or even the “undergraduate core,” but rather the blame should be placed on “the offices and departments responsible for graduate admissions for failing to filter out miscreants who received a bad undergraduate education somewhere else.”
Perhaps Not a Book
“Slacking” is a very short read, highlighting how far off the rails—curriculum-wise—our most elite universities are currently going. The book itself, though, is rather oddly constructed, full of bullet points, and very brief descriptions of sections. Honestly, I’m not certain why it was placed in book form. It just doesn’t seem to fit the medium. A social media account dedicated to laughably foolish Ivy League courses? Perhaps an eight-part YouTube series? Unless one is sending their child to one of these eight institutions and is additionally concerned their child might consider the irrational for $80,000 a year, it just seems strange to make this a book.Perhaps, though, the authors and publishers wished to chronicle this era of foolishness, so that years later we can reflect on why we fell apart societally—or how close we came.
