University of Virginia Library

Preppie Perpetuation

By perpetuating prep-school
practices the administration is not
so subtly saying that the educational
process is something that filters
down from above, from visitors and
administrators and faculty — who
have a broader perspective, a longer
view, a bigger corner of the truth
market. It just is not so. And
perhaps by saying, "Thanks just the
same, but we are here to learn, not
to submit, "Thanks just the same,
but we are here to learn, not to
submit," we will learn. Or perhaps
we have already learned that
power's where it's at, that power
concedes nothing without a
demand, that the demand must be
on ourselves, a demand to generate
a power more responsible, more
reasonable, more liberating.