Stanley: The PC horrors that afflict so much of life in our universities

and colleges are indeed deplorable, and you’ll get no argument from me about

the poisonous influence of harpies like Rhonda Garelick.

There is something else that needs to be said, though: America’s higher

education system is in many respects the world’s best. A story in the

current issue of The Economist (which, in spite of having held one of

their grossly expensive print subscriptions for at least 25 years, I can

never get into online) lays out in detail the superiority of our system to

most others.

After reading that article Saturday morning, I went into the city to have

dinner with some friends visiting from China. The host was an ex-student of

mine, now very successful in a branch of the Chinese security services. He

has his 15-yr-old daughter in a school in Virginia, and she has her sights

on a top-flight US university. My friend also brought along his brother, a

successful entrepreneur in China, who has no interest in living in the US

(and in fact can’t speak a word of English) but very much wants to get his

kids into American colleges, and nagged me for advice on applications,

qualifications, visas, and so on.

There is a lot to object to in American higher education; but these are

blemishes on a system that is still the envy of the world.