Why My Friends and I Had More Wisdom When We Were 12 Than College Students and Faculty Have Today

A religious Jewish yeshiva (seminary) student prays in the synagogue at the Ponovitz Yeshiva in the city of Bnei Brak, in central Israel, on May 11, 2006. Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Commentary

The average 12-year-old student at a yeshiva has more wisdom than almost any student at Harvard or most other universities. (A yeshiva is an Orthodox Jewish school with an emphasis on religious studies. About half the school day is devoted to religious studies—taught from the original Hebrew sources.)