Disillusionment

Lost in the Meritocracy: 

The Undereducation of an Overachiever 

by Walter Kirn

"'I won a nice fellowship, Uncle Admiral. To Oxford. I know you always loved London'."






"Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever," Walter Kirn's 2009 memoir, is a scathing and frequently comical indictment of the American educational system and the concept of a merit-based society in general. Kirn's journey from a rural Minnesota upbringing to Princeton University's esteemed halls is chronicled in the book; this path was supposedly paved by academic ambition and high test scores. Kirn's experience, however, exposes a system that, in his opinion, places more value on the unrelenting pursuit of credentials and points than on sincere intellectual curiosity and personal development.

"Lost in the Meritocracy" is fundamentally an examination of disillusionment. Kirn describes how he felt empty and "under-educated" despite being an "overachiever" because of his unwavering pursuit of success within the conventional parameters of academic achievement. The tyranny of credentials and testing, the "undereducation" of an overachiever, the critique of elite institutions, social class and belonging, and the price of conformity are some of the major themes.

Walter Kirn is one of my favorite writers, and this book, like his satirical novel Thumbsucker, was fun to read.