Famous School, Famous Company: Is That Enough?

A question about education has long nagged at me: graduate from a famous school, join a famous company — is that enough? Do not misunderstand: I have no wish to deny academic effort; earning entry into a good school is admirable.

What nags me lies beyond it — that at the end of the rails of good school and good company, no answer to "what do I work for?" is automatically provided. I have met many adults with splendid résumés who cannot speak of a dream, while the executives around me, whose lives no diploma can describe, all speak of the future with shining eyes.

What divided them was not schooling, but whether life ever carried them through the experience of holding a dream, committing to it in earnest, and out- working everyone to reach it.

What we wish to build in education is not an arena of competitive excellence, but environments where each person meets a dream and the fire of motivation catches. Not a denial of the system — a filling of what lies missing beyond it.

What do you work for?