‘Privilege-Checking’ Now Part of Orientation at Harvard’s Kennedy School
Think other schools will emulate this? What does everyone think of this.Harvard University’s prestigious John F. Kennedy School of Government used to imbue their graduates with the spirit of public service. As a play on the famous words President Kennedy uttered during his inaugural address, the school’s motto, “Ask what you can do,” fills one with a desire to strive and achieve for the betterment of society. If some get their way, however, that can-do attitude is soon to be supplanted by a paralyzing sense of inadequacy.
Upon admittance, new enrollees to the Kennedy School will soon be made to take an orientation class in which they are informed of their level of “privilege” and instructed on ways in which they can “check” it. “We’re at one of the most powerful institutions in the world, yet we never critically examine power and privilege and what it means to have access to this power,” said Reetu Mody, a first year master’s student and “campus activist.”
Yes, the first thing that comes to mind when people think of higher education is a noble contempt for self-gratifying onanism.
New York Magazine’s Kat Stoeffel indicates that Harvard’s decision to introduce “privilege-checking” into the curriculum may have something to do with the critique the ideology of “privilege” recently received from Princeton University freshman Tal Fortgang. In an essay in his school paper, the 19-year-old nonconformist punctured the paper-thin membrane of logic which protected the idea of “privilege” from being cautiously mocked to outright ridiculed.
I think it's hilariously misguided and dumb but I don't think it will hurt Harvard much.