Anyone who's been to a top-flight school (or heck, any school) has had their "crumbling" moments. Heck, I ended up having a panic attack in the middle of a religious studies exam at UNC. We've all been there.
However, the only thing that's going to happen when college administrators make statements like this is that bright students are going to go in the closet with their mental health issues. They're going to either not get the help they need because they're afraid of the repercussions, or they'll sneak around to do it. And both of those things could cause even worse problems. It's very dangerous to make a judgement call that someone is weaker because they've actually had the strength to seek out help for their problems. And if someone went to the trouble of doing an anonymous poll of MIT grads asking them how many had sought psychiatric help during their collegiate years and then tracked their later success, I daresay that those who did seek help probably had greater success than many who didn't.
That said, I don't think it's a college's job to "coddle" anyone. It's their job to teach them. But I think that most of them manage to strattle the line between the two. This particular administrator is an exception to the rule, I think.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2004-08-20 02:43 pm (UTC)However, the only thing that's going to happen when college administrators make statements like this is that bright students are going to go in the closet with their mental health issues. They're going to either not get the help they need because they're afraid of the repercussions, or they'll sneak around to do it. And both of those things could cause even worse problems. It's very dangerous to make a judgement call that someone is weaker because they've actually had the strength to seek out help for their problems. And if someone went to the trouble of doing an anonymous poll of MIT grads asking them how many had sought psychiatric help during their collegiate years and then tracked their later success, I daresay that those who did seek help probably had greater success than many who didn't.
That said, I don't think it's a college's job to "coddle" anyone. It's their job to teach them. But I think that most of them manage to strattle the line between the two. This particular administrator is an exception to the rule, I think.