[quote=harvey]
But, yeah, there’s a backlash against intellectualism. Maybe if collgess didn’t emphasize coursework like “gender studies” education would be taken more seriously.

Ahh the good ol’ days, when even the presidents we did not like were qualified, capable leaders who maintained the dignity of the office…[/quote]

For once, we have some common ground, although I don’t think that the colleges are to blame. I can see it all around me – we live in Carmel Valley where there are 3 high schools. Two are public and therefore free (Torrey Pines, Canyon Crest) one is private and about $17,000 (Cathedral Catholic HS). The number of people from within the community who send their kids to Cathedral because they love the sports program or prefer Torrey Pines (again, because of the sports emphasis) is shocking. On the other hand, CCA, which has consistently higher test scores, a very accepting culture and all kinds of other things going for it is sort of chuckled at. In fact, the standard joke among TP and CCHS students is to call Canyon Crest “CC Gay” – which is a problem on a number of levels.

I had a friend years ago who worked for the Dept. of Ed under a grant to the National Center for Educational Leadership. They spent an enormous amount of time and money trying to identify factors that were predictive of someone being a good leader (not sure what the metrics were). At the time we discussed it, there didn’t seem to be any way to predict who would do well.

I see the problem as the extremists donating the most money and therefore choosing the candidates and conversely the candidates pandering to the extremists. Again, though, how do you fix it?