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It’s Time to Say Goodbye to the Step-by-step Life
I went to college early in this century， when the drug of choice on campus was sleep deprivation①. Students trying to do more than the day allowed would run their work into the night and brave the bleary②consequences. I partook. Often， after classes， I’d rehearse with the campus orchestra I played in. Later， I’d go to the offices of the school newspaper， where it might be my turn to proofread the next morning’s edition. By the time the pages closed， it would be 3 or 4 A.M. I’d walk home， perch at my desk， and finish writing a course paper. A new day， somehow， had already begun.
Most students at élite schools knew what they were getting into long before they actually got in.
L ike many wit h an upward approach， I aspired to take school seriously. Early in my freshman year， I’d had a vision of myself as a much older man， a professor， gray-haired and bespectacled③ and maybe a little fat， trundling④ home from a campus music recital in a long blue coat. This older self would brew tea， switch on his desk lamp， and spend a few hours pecking away at a subdued⑤ but brilliant study of American modernism before collapsing into an armchair with a book. It seemed great. But it didn’t seem the life for which I was being trained. Instead， there was the breakneck schedule and the projects reaching for a world beyond the university gates.
L earning is supposed t o be about falling down and getting up again until you do it right. But， in an academic culture that demands constant achievement， failures seem so perilous⑥ that the best and the brightest often spend their young years in terrariums⑦ of excellence. The result is what Deresiewicz calls "a violent aversion to risk." Even after graduation， élite students show a taste for track-based， well-paid industries like finance and consulting.
T he net ef f ect， Deresiewicz believes， is the smothering of students’"souls"：
"The job of college is to assist you， or force you， to start on your way through the vale of soul-m aking. Books， ideas， works of art and thought， the pressure of the minds around you that are looking for their own answers in their own ways： all of these are incitements， disruptions， violations. They m ake you question everything you thought you knew about yourself."
"I used to think that we needed to create a world where every child had an equal chance to get to the Ivy League，" he writes. "I’ve come to see that what we really need is to create one where you don’t have to go to the Ivy League， or any private college， to get a firstrate education."
我是本世纪初上的大学。当时，睡眠不足是校园生活的毒品。大学生们试图挤出更多白天时间多做事，然后常常工作至深夜，再镇定自若地直面惺忪的睡眼。我亦然。课后，身为校管弦乐队的一员，我经常和他们一起排练。然后，我会去校刊办公室，因为可能会轮到我校对第二天早上的那一版校刊。到我校对完毕合上书页，也许就到凌晨三、四点了。我走回家，坐到书桌前，还得写完一篇课程论文。不知不觉中，新的一天又开始了。
大多数精英学校学生在正式入学之前很久，就知道自己未来的路该怎么走。这样按部就班地按着时间表生活，造就了我大学生涯的习惯和对大学生涯的期望。偶尔，我们中的一两个人会感觉和许多奋发向上的人一样，我立志不要辜负我的大学时光。在大一入学后不久，我曾把自己想象成是个上了年纪的人，想象成一名教授，灰发苍苍，戴着眼镜，可能还有点胖，穿着蓝色长大衣在校园音乐演奏会结束后踱步回家。这个上了年纪的我会泡上一杯茶，打开桌上的台灯，花上几个小时埋头于虽已每况愈下但仍灿烂夺目的美国现代主义文学研究，然后捧着书倒在扶手椅里沉沉睡去。这样的生活虽然看起来完美无缺，但并不是我上了这么多年学所追求的生活。相反，在大学的大门敞开之后，紧张忙碌的课程安排和项目研究构成的完全是另一个大相径庭的世界。
学习应该是不断地失败、跌倒，然后重新站起来，直到做得正确为止。但是，在苛求不断成功的学术环境下，失败看起来如临深渊，所以使得最优秀和最聪明的学者在年轻时都只会把时间消磨在玻璃容器里拌拌酒。其结果就是德雷谢维奇所说的“对风险深恶痛绝”。即使在毕业后，精英大学学生也只对像金融、咨询等这样中规中矩的高收入行业感兴趣。
德莱塞维茨认为，这最终将会影响到大学生的“心灵”：
大学的工作就是帮助你或者强迫你培养心灵，走上自己的旅程。书本、观点、艺术和思想作品、思想压力环绕于你四周，以它们别具一格的方式寻找自身的答案：所有这些会蛊惑你、干扰你、妨碍你。它们使你质疑每一件你以为了如指掌的自己的事情。”
“我过去认为，我们需要创造一个所有学生都有同等机会进入常青藤的美好世界。”他写道，“我现在意识到，我们真正需要创造的世界，是你根本不需要进入常青藤或任何私立大学，就能得到第一等的教育。”
I went to college early in this century， when the drug of choice on campus was sleep deprivation①. Students trying to do more than the day allowed would run their work into the night and brave the bleary②consequences. I partook. Often， after classes， I’d rehearse with the campus orchestra I played in. Later， I’d go to the offices of the school newspaper， where it might be my turn to proofread the next morning’s edition. By the time the pages closed， it would be 3 or 4 A.M. I’d walk home， perch at my desk， and finish writing a course paper. A new day， somehow， had already begun.
Most students at élite schools knew what they were getting into long before they actually got in.
L ike many wit h an upward approach， I aspired to take school seriously. Early in my freshman year， I’d had a vision of myself as a much older man， a professor， gray-haired and bespectacled③ and maybe a little fat， trundling④ home from a campus music recital in a long blue coat. This older self would brew tea， switch on his desk lamp， and spend a few hours pecking away at a subdued⑤ but brilliant study of American modernism before collapsing into an armchair with a book. It seemed great. But it didn’t seem the life for which I was being trained. Instead， there was the breakneck schedule and the projects reaching for a world beyond the university gates.
L earning is supposed t o be about falling down and getting up again until you do it right. But， in an academic culture that demands constant achievement， failures seem so perilous⑥ that the best and the brightest often spend their young years in terrariums⑦ of excellence. The result is what Deresiewicz calls "a violent aversion to risk." Even after graduation， élite students show a taste for track-based， well-paid industries like finance and consulting.
T he net ef f ect， Deresiewicz believes， is the smothering of students’"souls"：
"The job of college is to assist you， or force you， to start on your way through the vale of soul-m aking. Books， ideas， works of art and thought， the pressure of the minds around you that are looking for their own answers in their own ways： all of these are incitements， disruptions， violations. They m ake you question everything you thought you knew about yourself."
"I used to think that we needed to create a world where every child had an equal chance to get to the Ivy League，" he writes. "I’ve come to see that what we really need is to create one where you don’t have to go to the Ivy League， or any private college， to get a firstrate education."
我是本世纪初上的大学。当时，睡眠不足是校园生活的毒品。大学生们试图挤出更多白天时间多做事，然后常常工作至深夜，再镇定自若地直面惺忪的睡眼。我亦然。课后，身为校管弦乐队的一员，我经常和他们一起排练。然后，我会去校刊办公室，因为可能会轮到我校对第二天早上的那一版校刊。到我校对完毕合上书页，也许就到凌晨三、四点了。我走回家，坐到书桌前，还得写完一篇课程论文。不知不觉中，新的一天又开始了。
大多数精英学校学生在正式入学之前很久，就知道自己未来的路该怎么走。这样按部就班地按着时间表生活，造就了我大学生涯的习惯和对大学生涯的期望。偶尔，我们中的一两个人会感觉和许多奋发向上的人一样，我立志不要辜负我的大学时光。在大一入学后不久，我曾把自己想象成是个上了年纪的人，想象成一名教授，灰发苍苍，戴着眼镜，可能还有点胖，穿着蓝色长大衣在校园音乐演奏会结束后踱步回家。这个上了年纪的我会泡上一杯茶，打开桌上的台灯，花上几个小时埋头于虽已每况愈下但仍灿烂夺目的美国现代主义文学研究，然后捧着书倒在扶手椅里沉沉睡去。这样的生活虽然看起来完美无缺，但并不是我上了这么多年学所追求的生活。相反，在大学的大门敞开之后，紧张忙碌的课程安排和项目研究构成的完全是另一个大相径庭的世界。
学习应该是不断地失败、跌倒，然后重新站起来，直到做得正确为止。但是，在苛求不断成功的学术环境下，失败看起来如临深渊，所以使得最优秀和最聪明的学者在年轻时都只会把时间消磨在玻璃容器里拌拌酒。其结果就是德雷谢维奇所说的“对风险深恶痛绝”。即使在毕业后，精英大学学生也只对像金融、咨询等这样中规中矩的高收入行业感兴趣。
德莱塞维茨认为，这最终将会影响到大学生的“心灵”：
大学的工作就是帮助你或者强迫你培养心灵，走上自己的旅程。书本、观点、艺术和思想作品、思想压力环绕于你四周，以它们别具一格的方式寻找自身的答案：所有这些会蛊惑你、干扰你、妨碍你。它们使你质疑每一件你以为了如指掌的自己的事情。”
“我过去认为，我们需要创造一个所有学生都有同等机会进入常青藤的美好世界。”他写道，“我现在意识到，我们真正需要创造的世界，是你根本不需要进入常青藤或任何私立大学，就能得到第一等的教育。”