Monday, April 26, 2010

Nothing Good Can Come of It When the 'A' Students Run the Show

The always hilarious P.J. O'Rourke spells out what happens when the 'A' students are allowed to run the country in an article at The Weekly Standard entitled, "A Plague of 'A' Students." Of course we don't actually have any idea what kind of grades our president was given earned in school, but he certainly comports himself as smarter and better than the rest of us, as illustrated here:

The secret to the Obama annoyance is snotty lecturing. His tone of voice sends us back to the worst place in college. We sit once more packed into the vast, dreary confines of a freshman survey course—“Rocks for Jocks,” “Nuts and Sluts,” “Darkness at Noon.” At the lectern is a twerp of a grad student—the prototypical A student—insecure, overbearing, full of himself and contempt for his students. All we want is an easy three credits to fulfill a curriculum requirement in science, social science, or fine arts. We’ve got a mimeographed copy of last year’s final with multiple choice answers already written on our wrists. The grad student could skip his classes, the way we intend to, but there the s.o.b. is, taking attendance. (How else to explain this year’s census?)



America has made the mistake of letting the A student run things. It was A students who briefly took over the business world during the period of derivatives, credit swaps, and collateralized debt obligations. We’re still reeling from the effects. This is why good businessmen have always adhered to the maxim: “A students work for B students.” Or, as a businessman friend of mine put it, “B students work for C students—A students teach.”


Read the whole thing. (And I was a 'B' student in case you're wondering.)
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