As I’ve discussed before, elite is quite a popular term in this year’s election. I won’t use this post to discuss the long history of populism i.e. anti-elitism in the U.S. because I would like to focus on one little slice of elitism that I happily subscribe to and that is elitism in schools, specifically high school and middle school.

I was blessed with a mother who sent myself and my siblings to Catholic schools. I don’t remember feeling privileged when I was in ‘grade school’ and I probably just figured it was because she wanted us to grow up to be good Catholics. Once I got in high school, that changed. Because I came from a single parent home and my dad thought Catholic schools were a waste of money, i actually assisted my mom with my tuition for high school. This meant bagging groceries for 30 hours per week and foregoing a car until I was 18, but somehow I knew I was paying for something special. Well into my college years I still felt I had been fortunate to have that experience but i couldn’t quite articulate why.

Late one night at an archaeology conference i was talking to some colleagues in a hotel bar and we were discussing alumni donations. I admitted that I still gave as generously and I could to my former high school, was active in the alumni association and still had a school bumper sticker on my car. To the last man they were all shocked. “It’s just your high school….why do you care?” Was their collective response. I asked how many of them attended private schools and none of them had. That’s when it began to click and I told them simply, “Unless you went there, you wouldn’t understand.”

What I began to realize after that conversation was that beyond academics, beyond the talent of the students and teachers, what made my high school and others like it successful was a sense of elitism. We were told nearly every day that, “Excellence is our standard, not the exception.” We were told that we should thank our parents for sending us there. We were told that we represented our school wherever we were and we were to carry ourselves accordingly in the local community (we could receive disciplinary actions for a speeding ticket or a fight on the other side of town). We were fortunate enough to be a powerhouse in local athletics and that also contributed to a general sense that we were special.

What I have come to realize is that for those years of my life, filling my head with notions of elitism wasn’t such a bad thing. Yes, it made us all a little cocky. Yes, we probably thought we were better than other kids at other schools. I say, so what? It made us all work harder. It made us feel like we had a thousand brothers that had our back. It made us feel like we could accomplish anything. We used words like family to describe our school and the people that were involved with it.  In my opinion, the millions of dollars in scholarships that my graduating class received and the 98% of us that went on to college was the proof that a little elitism isn’t such a bad thing.

The teachers I had weren’t any smarter than the teachers at the public high school down the street. The students at my school weren’t any smarter. But we were all committed to that school in a way most public school employees and students are not. There is no sense of ownership, no sense of school pride. For most kids, college is the first time they really feel proud of their school and that is a shame. But I don’t think it is impossible to develop that in public schools.

As my oldest daughter moved through her middle school, a school that is public but follows a ‘traditional’ model, I saw that same old sense of elitism creep in. Because her school had a long waiting list due to its excellent reputation, the students there were told that if they didn’t like the tougher standards they could easily be replaced by more willing students. Brutal but true. Her school told them daily that they should be thankful they were there.  ‘Spirit weeks’ and other activities helped ensure a healthy dose of school pride. The high number of honors students on graduation day again testified that a little sense of elitism isn’t such a bad thing. My daughter was a little cocky when she left there as well and I happily encouraged it. Sooner, rather than later, the world will tell her she’s not the big shot she thinks she is, so for now, why not let her enjoy it?

While we toss about ideas on how best to educate our children and how important it is to be involved parents working with good teachers, maybe we all need to take a step back and think about what really motivates students. Learning the school fight song, lots of pep rallies, developing a sense of pride and a little dose of elitism are pretty good companions to a quality education.