LUCETE!

In the ‘Episode 5: Food Fight’ of the podcast ‘Revisionist History’, Malcolm Gladwell compares two similar schools, Bowdoin College and Vassar College. They are both small elite liberal arts colleges with similar tuition fees and Vassar is a little bigger and edgier than Bowdoin. The major difference between these schools is the quality of the food. Bowdoin College has wonderful food, which are handmade, delicious, and diverse. Sometimes there are lobsters in the menu and the students are highly satisfied with it. Vassar’s food is terrible and almost inedible. Where did this difference come from? After Princeton dramatically expanded its financial aid, Vassar realized that low-income children spend almost a half of their families’ income to pay for the tuition and expanded its aid from 15 thousand to 60 thousand, 10 years ago. As a result, full tuition paying students that were about 75-80% of the total number of students were replaced by about 100 poor students. Obviously, Vassar ...

There is a boy named Carlos., a poor intelligent child who is too mature for his age and likes math. He didn’t feel very challenged in school and now attends an elite private school with full scholarship. Then, now the main question is how did he get up the ladder? He received help from Eric Eisner’s YES program in Los Angeles, a program that identifies the most promising students, tutor them, and get them into private schools. While Carlos attended a fancy elementary school, thanks to the help of YES, he felt a bit self-conscious. He couldn’t play with others in recess because he wore shoes that two sizes large. Later, Carlos really wanted to go to Chode, but he couldn’t because his mother wouldn’t let him go. Carlos had to care of his mother and his sister. However, his mother gets imprisoned and Carlos and his sister had to live in messy foster homes. After all these difficulties, Carlos finally gets into a private school. The story may sound touching, even inspiring. No. This...