Congratulations to Damali, my daugther,  for deciding to pursue her MBA. Until she began to apply to business schools, and investigate their programs, I was unaware of how competitive the process is, and how high the demand is for seats in the good programs. I was also unaware of the differences each program emphasizes--of how the MBA's showcase their uniqueness while detailing its comprehensiveness in the first year program.

One element each program shared, as a basic benefit, was salary. For the elite, two year Master's programs, the starting salaries are huge! Well over a hundred thousand dollars! A quick visit to many of these programs' websites will list salary breakdowns by major or industry cluster, signing bonuses by cluster, (often by gender), number of offers per student, three year average salaries, projected from historic data.

Since the tuitions are also very high (usually more than $32,000 a year), advertising salaries certainly helps to assure new students that the tuition of money well spent--when the return is calculated! But should salary and earning potential be so promiently displayed--and so balantly showcased--as a part of student recruitment?

Having been a liberal arts major--history--I often wonder is there a place for values, good works, community enhancement, quality of life work--within corporate America? Sure, the Rouse Company--an aging pioneer of corportate and commerical development for urban areas and newly planned communities--is a example everyone points to with pride, but is it the exception that proves the rule?

I do know that in minority communities, the once cherished, bedrock belief that education, expecially college, can change the lives and income levels of graduates, while creating new opportunities is disappearing in the face of the conundrum of its success. In other words, for every Damali, there are teenagers, smart, gifted, bright, talented, well spoken, alert, dedicated, who see no future, but are lead to dead ends by applause. They lie just below the Damali's. Often they do not have the support systems of friends, community, and family that shuttle them to soccer, dance, competitions, museums, overnight trips, or internships. They follow their peers, blend in with their values, and provide the educational institutions with no trouble. Their applause is in a group identity that gets "right" the type of shoes, hair style, "man," hip-hop lyric, music video, and appearence, coupled with the "right" decisions about sex, part-time work, and life planning. This "feel good" zone is a comfort, a place where dreams are suspended, and days slip quietly by until the bitterness of waiting to long and having too little intrudes.  

These teens, and young adults, live a world that parallels Damali's. they don't recieve very much help in the form of breaking down their world view. They don't "see" college as being for them. No one has helped them make that magic connection. Instead, they are praised and recognized comparably for who they are--not who they can be.

And they are: hard working, proud young people nudged toward the commonplace. Who accept the imposed images of others with a cliche and a shrug. I often see their ranks passing during the day. I listen acutely, but hear little of the fire burning that must prpell them to break through the comfort of innui. I remember the old joke about the student when asked to define the difference between ignorance and apathy, said, "I don't know, and I don't care."

The irony is that the negative change in our communities, black and white--the actual policy outcome of Patrick Moyihan's once outrageous suggestion of "benign neglect"--now applauds others who are successful, vicariously ignoring the opportunities we all have to widen the circle, vigorously expand the worth of each of our inner selves.