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Excellence? How Un-American...

There has been a good deal of news and commentary over the past few days about the G-20 nations? rejection of Obama?s push for ?continued global stimulus? as the ?G20 summit rebuffs Obama.?

Almost overlooked in this controversy, however, is one area where Germany, a leading critic of Obama?s continuing deficit spending, has launched a major new spending program, ?the Excellence Initiative,? that is also very un-Obamian in nature. As the Chronicle of Higher Education reports this morning, ?Germany Pursues Excellence Over Egalitarianism.?

Like the United States, for much of the post-World War II era Germany ?recoiled from ... elitism.? According to Margret Winermantel, president of an organization that represents Germany?s 258 institutions of higher education,
?We had this tradition that all are kind of equal. Of course,? she continued, ?everyone knew this was not true, this was a fiction.?

All too real, however, was the fact that the country?s once pre-eminent universities no longer commanded universal esteem, and the depths to which they had fallen was driven home by the relative dearth of German institutions in the top echelons of the newly influential global-rankings tables, dominated by American and British universities.

In 2004 the federal government proposed the Excellence Initiative in a bid to foster outstanding research and propel more German institutions ahead in the rankings. Yet the notion of rewarding individual universities for excellence was still controversial enough that the word ?elite? was quickly expunged from official discussion of the program.

Here, gifted programs, tests that measure either aptitude or knowledge, etc., are routinely attacked as ?elitist.?
By contrast, Obama?s approach to education is to maximize egalitarianism, ?Giving every American the opportunity to attend and afford and be successful in college.? To the Obamians, the biggest problem of higher education is higher costs, and especially that ?Only 12 percent of Hispanics and 16 percent of African Americans eventually earn a bachelor?s degree ? compared with 33 percent of White students. The rising cost of college is a factor in this disparity.?

Excellence is well on the way to becoming un-American.

Full post as published by Discriminations on June 28, 2010 (boomark / email).