Anything but Peoria

Wise observations from Mead: “Perhaps the rarest thing in the United States today is to find a well-educated young American who sees earning the respect of ordinary Americans on an ordinary job as the necessary foundation to a strong personal character and valuable career. Plenty of young Americans study abroad, precisely to acquire a sympathetic understanding of people different from themselves, but few venture from the citadels of privilege to learn about their fellow citizens at home: Tibet, yes; Peoria, no.”

And this: “Compounding this problem is a serious deficiency in the American academy: an almost complete neglect of the arts of rational persuasion. Bright young Americans simply don’t get much training in learning to speak and, above all, to write in ways that the average, less-privileged fellows citizens find convincing. Indeed, it is generally true in the United States today that the ‘better’ the schools one attends, and the longer one stays in them, the less ability or desire one has to speak or write in ways that will be persuasive to the great majority of one’s fellow citizens.”