Lives of Promise: What Becomes of High School Valedictorians: A Fourteen-year Study of Achievement and Life Choices
Karen Arnold
Top 10 Best Quotes
“That is, ability, values, opportunities, gender, culture, and social class all affect the aspirations and achievements of academically talented students. So does chance.”
“Higher education, in contrast, did not always keep its promise to develop the talents of even its best students. Left with classroom achievement alone, many students never found a negotiable path to a clearly envisioned career corresponding to their deepest interests and values.”
“For academically talented women, in contrast, school success does not guarantee occupational success. Even the best female college students need people who will support them, encourage them, and – most important—who will connect them to opportunities.”
“Are schools rewarding the right people as the highest achievers? If the goal is hard-working, productive, adaptable adults, then U.S. high schools are recognizing precisely the correct group.”
“Academically capable men and women almost never follow a single-minded interest from childhood into careers.”
“Women—and only women—lowered their intellectual self-esteem between high school graduation and sophomore year of college.”
“Valedictorians were highly motivated to excel academically because of early family and school experiences.”
“To reach the head of the class, students needed to conform to the school system and work equally hard at all subjects.”
“To be number one is to be publicly labeled a winner in the system that counts – a system of advancement through personal merit and effort in rugged competition. Labels of success – Rhodes scholar, Nobel laureate, Heisman Trophy winner – follow a person through life and define him or her to the public. One such label, valedictorian, marks academic winners. Schools in the United States have at least one common belief: high academic achievement is a good thing.”
“The stories of successful channels, stifling ruts, and missed paths all point to the same conclusion: the successful passage from school to postschool achievement requires an interpersonal process of increasing self-understanding, career socialization, and tacit knowledge.”
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Book Keywords:
education, success, intelligence, psychology, nonfiction-writing, nonfiction, nonfiction-criminal-justice
