"The best college is one where you don't fit in"

[cquin85]

@circuitrider

I think it’s been helpful to think about the exceptions. Like for young people suffering from trauma; people in despair, and people who have already experienced a lifetime of discomfort, like the chronically ill.

best contributions to the thread IMO.

[twoinanddone]

Academia definitely needs those who need to be the pushers and those who need a big comfy chair to settle into.

I was in the high school class that sent the first females to the service academies. Those were some very brave women who were trailblazers, who had to fight every single day. I’m sure most of them loved it but that there were a few who hated it but refused to quit.

There have been other trailblazers - at HBCUs, at the all male colleges and even at Vassar (although I don’t think it was as rough for them), at religious colleges.

But not everyone wants college to be the challenge of a lifetime, to spend 4 years in an uncomfortable setting. You can be challenged and comfortable.

[inthegarden]

My D is an Asian adoptee who grew up in a small, predominantly white, working class post/industrial sort-of Appalachian town. Neither of us, her parents, are from here (dad from NYC, in fact, which makes hm quite an outlier). This is a town of extended families and friendship ties that go back generations. You can live here for 40 years but not be “from”here. People are friendly but still clannish in their inne circles, if that makes sense. In this environment my D had friends, did fine, was rarely bullied for her race, but learned early to conform, keep a low profile, keep many of her thought and opinions and experiences to herself, to outwardly accept the status quo (and I was afraid in some ways, inwardly as well). Going to college in a much more diverse and progressive environment (although moderately so, in the scheme of things… it’s no Wesleyan and there’s a healthy mix of views) has been transformative and freeing for her. She’s much more confident and more likely to speak her mind now in a nuanced way about complex issues . Her more “comfortable” college experience gave her the courage to challenge herself to do things she wouldn’t have done in elementary through high school for fear of drawing attention to herself.

[ucbalumnus]

@twoinanddone

There have been other trailblazers - at HBCUs,

Since HBCUs did not have rules against enrolling non-Black students, it seems that the more significant trailblazing would have been the first non-White students who attended HWCUs that previously had rules against enrolling non-White students or which were seen as hostile to non-White students (example at a forum favorite school).

[cquin85]

While I’m glad that your son found a better fit than he experienced in high school, I think Roth’s idea of fit and challenging oneself is a little more nuanced than the jocks/intellectual divide you describe, which is not uncommon in American public schools.

Having read some of his works, Roth puts a premium on students feeling like they are a legitimate part of their academic community, which essentially is his line in the sand for “safe enough” spaces.