Little Ivy? I think not.

New York Times, May 10
Nine prominent professors are leading an effort to rethink the culture of undergraduate teaching and learning at Harvard.

“It’s well known that there are many other colleges where students are much more satisfied with their academic experience,” said Paul Buttenwieser, a psychiatrist and author who is a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, and who favors the report. “Amherst is always pointed to. Harvard should be as great at teaching as Amherst.”

I just read this on the Amherst alumni site. It gives me some nice warm fuzzies, though, because Amherst really was a swell place. There was a lot of academic freedom and personal choice, and it was a great environment for me to explore my interests.

I’ve always kind of liked the fact that a significant population has no idea what Amherst College is (except back when the Minute Men were hot in the 90s, when most people assumed I went to UMass). Still, it warms the cockles of my heart to see a nod to my alma mater from a source of such ersatz prestige. I mean, I’m not knocking Harvard, but the Ivy League designation is, to me, like the Bordeaux Classification of 1855, when wine producers were classified in 1855 based on price (which more or less reflected quality at the time). Today, some of the First Growths are still quite amazing, but there are many lesser-classified wines that, in my humble opinion, surpass most of the Premier Crus. For example, to my palate, the wines of Cos d’Estournel are among the finest in the known universe, and the press routinely agrees, but they remain relegated to Second Growth status.

The analogy is not totally off (even though I used it just to wank a little about the 1855 Classification and my favorite Second Growth). After all, the Ivy League really designates an athletic conference of 8 of the oldest schools in the country. Certainly these are 8 schools with great academic reputations (and huge endowments) but it always bugs me that many people believe Ivy League schools are the best schools. They are not. They are excellent schools, but they represent only one type of school. Specifically, one that is old and one that has a substantial athletics program. You’re not gonna find big athletics at a small liberal arts college. But you will often find a more intimate educational opportunity, and I think that’s what Paul Buttenwieser is indicating.

Cool. I agree Mr. Buttenwiesser. And let me be the first to apologize on behalf of all those kids who must have called you Paul Butt-head-wiesser when you were growing up. That was wrong of them.

I’ve clearly been awake for far too long because I’m just rambling.