Who Gets To Be Smart

 

When Bri Lee visited her friend at Oxford, she found herself struggling with feelings of inferiority and discomfort -- was she really clever enough to keep up with this crowd, or would she be found out as an imposter? She says she'd spent her (short) life competing for the 'shiny tin pots' -- awards, scholarships, degrees, pats on the back from academia. But does winning those shining pots really prove anything? 

Who Gets To Be Smart is an engaging, passionate examination of the web of self-reinforcing structures that largely decide who ends up with privilege and power in this country. As I read, I kept being reminded of the front benchers of the Liberal party -- a cohort of middle-aged white men who went to the same private schools and the same universities, and who all genuinely believe that they arrived in Parliament on 'merit.' Lee herself went to a private school and cruised into university, and in some ways this gives her insight into how these institutions work. But, as a review in The Guardian pointed out, it would have been good to hear some more voices from those shut out of the ivory tower: the disabled, those entrenched in poverty, people who measure their own success by different metrics than 'shiny pots.'

This was an entertaining but ultimately depressing read. How do we start to dismantle this mess? I guess the first step is to take a long hard look at it, and that's what Lee does here.