Einstein is quoted widely that you are foolish if you keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. For example, assuming equal potentiality for every individual and expecting that equal outcomes will follow is one such mistake. Richard Feynman had a different idea and advocated the idea that education should increase the variation between individuals, not reduce it. No one paid much attention to him, especially at the education conference where he made his remarks.

Oprah Winfrey has wisely taken a different course: She established a school for girls in South Africa and personally interviewed the top 500 of 5000 applicants. When she chose approximately 160 to attend rather than depend on random selection, she looked for girls who want knowledge rather than a pair of sneakers.

It's a safe prediction that her school will have many extraordinary graduates. It's also a safe bet that her students's I. Q. Is not representative of South Africans and that her school will reward achievement rather than entitlement. Winfrey, you see, ordered that each bedroom have a large closet. Although a room's future occupant now has nothing, that occupant will earn enough to fill its closet and get herself notice from historians.

JimB

copyright, 2007, James Brody, all rights reserved