Hello Dominic,
what you are saying here is very interesting:

> I always hated, and resent to this day, the notion that the difference
> between the bright ones and the rest must be something to do with the
> enjoyment of social privilege, when in so many cases it was so clearly an
> *anti*-social instinct in those bright young people, an animus *against*
the
> values of their social peers, that had formed the core of their
intellectual
> drive. Intellect is divisive: you have to become divided, both from others
> and within yourself, in order to have room to cultivate it. This cuts
across
> social class, across all boundaries of race and gender and what have
you...

and does make me think, and there is a lot of truth inside it.
I anyhow think that the fact of being "bright" _ as seen in the majority of
students who come from rich families_ has to do with experience. They were
usually taken all around the world and had the possibility of visiting
museums and of meeting a lot of people. While the poorer students were left
with a heap of books in a room and had to base their knowledge only on the
constant renewal of their interest.
There are anyhow some "but's".
Luckily.
Some poorer students were able to make the most out of their suffering, for
example, or out of the lack of richness, and were curious enough to develop
their own talents, or enough against (or in favor of, but in terms of love)
the society which surrounded them (and here I am with you) that they were
able to forge their will with an incredible might, and there are no rich
students who can beat them there. Some richer students were so dumb that
everything passed in front of their eyes and were not able to personalize
all the experiences which were given to them for free (and we do have heavy
problems here because these students will inherit _or have already
inherited_ the firms or industries of their fathers or mothers...).
Anyhow, it is easier to be brilliant if rich, and to read specialized
newspapers on a yacht, different than reading not-specialized newspapers in
a room, which is usually too cold or too hot.
At least this is what I notice _and have noticed_ out of my students who are
teenagers.
Take care, anny

From: "Dominic Fox" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>


> > If only the howlers I received were this terrific Max.  Usually, its
just
> a
> > lot of typos & some missed understanding, so to speak.
> >
> > Although students' sense of history is certainly interesting: everything
> > happening before about 1970 seems to happen in the same ancient
period...
> >
> > In response to a question on Timothy Findley's rewriting of the Flood
> > story, Not Wanted on the Voyage, one student commented that Noah was a
> > tyrant just like the Roman emperors of the same period...
>
> I always found this sort of thing hard to take, when I was teaching. For a
> time I argued that nobody would be permitted to get away with a similar
> level of ignorance on an undergraduate course in Physics; but then I spoke
> to one of my friends, who taught Physics undergraduates, and discovered
that
> this was not in fact the case. He complained of his students' mathematical
> illiteracy, their ignorance of basic facts and principles, and worst of
all
> their apparent unwillingness to recognise and repair these deficits in
> themselves. We blamed the schools, but perhaps we should really have
blamed
> the students: after all, some of the people we taught, coming from the
same
> social and educational background, were quite shockingly bright.
>
> I always hated, and resent to this day, the notion that the difference
> between the bright ones and the rest must be something to do with the
> enjoyment of social privilege, when in so many cases it was so clearly an
> *anti*-social instinct in those bright young people, an animus *against*
the
> values of their social peers, that had formed the core of their
intellectual
> drive. Intellect is divisive: you have to become divided, both from others
> and within yourself, in order to have room to cultivate it. This cuts
across
> social class, across all boundaries of race and gender and what have
you...
>
> Dominic