Education is fundamental to foster social development, and the western world perfectly shows how meritocracy is the optimal way to improve the world. Does it really though?  

Student commentary

By Nicole di Maria and Marica Loffreda / Matthew Staff  | Edited by Eleonora Prior

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 80% of U.S. students report feeling stressed sometimes or often, while 34% felt depression.¹ Schools are deeply needed to shape our mind, soul, values, and morals. Education is fundamental to foster social development, and the western world perfectly shows how meritocracy is the optimal way to improve the world. Does it really though?  

Especially in the Western capitalist liberal side of the world, universities are thought of as the place in which the individual transitions from adolescence to adulthood and the university prepares them with knowledge and skills to rock their world. To do so, students are prepared to confront themselves with exams, projects and, importantly, confront themselves with their colleagues. Here is the key part, in liberal-orientent institutions, students are encouraged to do the best they can and with healthy competition with their classmates. We are in a competitive world, so if you want to stand out, you need to be at your best and have to be better than the one sitting next to you. And what about those who can’t be at their best all the time? If we think about it, nobody can be at their best all the time but we are told that if we work really hard, devote our energies we can do everything we want. We can be our only limit.  

As for nowadays, we tend to give value to things and behaviors only if they pertain to the few. This is becoming a social phenomenon that is creating strong and serious psychological consequences on younger generations more than anyone else. The newborn culture of the few is shaping our society in micro and macro elitist eco-systems. It might seem predictable to say that we have already built a mindset based on individualism. In the machine that encompasses our societies, those who are “average” are spit out and left behind, and in order to become individuals, we must differentiate ourselves from “all the rest.” In such a context, there are two main consequences: first, we obsess over becoming the people everyone aims to be by setting unrealistic and unhealthy standards; second, we alienate ourselves from everyday successes, everyday people, everyday things, and everyday phenomena annihilating our minds and destroying our most human traits.  

What about you? Are you still able to appreciate being your most human self?  

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