In Conversation With
is better to choose the school that suits you best than to
the Chinese context there are typically five schools
choose the best." This saying is applicable to secondary in the United States that are considered “the best.”
institutions, like Keystone, and post-secondary institu- No matter what city I’m in, no matter what group
tions, such as Amherst. What is your perspective on this I’m speaking to, whether they have primary-aged
phrase? children or high-school-aged children, they give
me the same five schools. It’s amazing!
Rachael: In the quote you reference, I think that
the word “best” is a loaded one. It’s like the word If I asked them to give me a list of the most compet-
‘success’. Not everyone means the same thing when itive schools in the United States, the ones that are
they say ‘the best’, not everyone means the same numerically the most difficult schools to get into,
thing when they say what does it mean to be ‘suc- it would be a different five. If I asked them which
cessful’ in life. I think some people have very narrow schools had the most Rhodes Scholars it would be a
definitions of those things and I do not. I tease different five. If I asked them to tell me the schools
Chinese parents about this all the time because in that produced the wealthiest people in the United
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