The Organization Kid

1
The Organization Kid

• David Brooks
• The Atlantic Online
• The New York Times

2
Pre-reading

• The title of this selection alludes to an
  influential study by William H. Whyte, called The
  Organization Man (1956). Whyte wanted to
  understand people who not only worked for The
  Organization, but also belonged to it. What do
  you anticipate might be the characteristics of an
  organization kid? For the adult, the organization
  is the place of work, the corporation what might
  be the organization for a kid?

3
In reading

• Crusade (par. 3)
• to shoot the breeze (par. 4)
• Paidea (Paideia) (par. 4)meaning
• Millennialism meaning
• to hit the treadmill (par. 8)
• Meritocracy (par. 13) meaning
• Old Navy (par. 18) meaning
• Abercrombie Fitch meaning

4
Building vocabulary

• 1. goal-oriented strictly focused on achieving a
  certain goal, usually to exclusion of all else
• 2. end in itself something that is desirable for
  itself rather than as a means to something else
• 3. meritocratic elite a meritocracy (a word
  coined by Michael Young in his 1958 book The Rise
  of the Meritocracy) describes government by those
  (an elite) regarded as having merit (meaning
  intelligence plus effort), a quality established
  through such means as SATs and civil service exams

5
Building vocabulary

• 4. Boomer parents parents from the baby boom
  generation, roughly those born immediately after
  the Second World War
• 5. Gallup survey Gallup is the best-known
  scientific polling organization. The gallup
  Organization conducts regular polls of the public
  employing modern statistical methods
• 6. Retro-upbeat 1962 pre-assassination innocence
  the innocence of the upbeat era before
  assassination of President John K. Kennedy on
  November 22, 1963

6
Understanding the writers ideas

• 1. They are busy at all hours of the day and
  night, too busy to sleep.
• 2. Read newspapers, follow politics or good
  causes or establish meaningful relationships.
  They express regret but the writer says nowhere
  did I find anybody who seriously considered
  living any other way (par. 6). The writer feels
  something is being lost. In his day, for example,
  shooting the breeze mattered (par. 4)

7
Understanding the writers ideas

• 3. They are just tools for processing
  information (par. 5).
• 4. Opportunity lures them (par. 6)
• 5. They enjoy them as necessary opportunities
  (par. 6).
• 6. Theyre not trying to buck the system
  theyre trying to climb it (par. 10)

8
Understanding the writers ideas

• 7. Kids of all stripes lead lives that are
  structured, supervised, and stuffed with
  enrichment (par. 14)
• 8. The Clinton runners of things participated in
  college protest (par. 12).

9
Understanding the writers techniques

• 1. At the schools and colleges where the next
  leadership class is being bred, one finds not
  angry revolutionaries, despondent slackers, or
  dark cynics but the Organization Kid (par. 19).

10
Understanding the writers techniques

• 2. An engaged observer is passionately concerned
  with what s/hes observing. Perhaps Brooks should
  be described as a concerned, or curious observer?
  He notes that the new elite is losing something
  that he valued as a student, but he also notes
  that todays students have significant strengths.
  See, for example, his summary of qualities in
  par. 19. Or his observation that these students
  are not disputatious, which Brooks however
  calls, in a phrase that is hardly flattering, a
  verbal tic, that is, the need to apologize
  beforehand if youre going to disagree with
  someone.

11
Understanding the writers techniques

• 3. Part of this is just Princeton. It has always
  been the preppiest of the Ivy League schools
  (par. 13). But the young elite are not entirely
  unlike the other young (par. 13). Pars. 14-18
  pertain to a generation, even if the Princeton
  undergrads are the epitome of certain
  generational qualities.

12
Understanding the writers techniques

• 4. The writer understands this student generation
  in the context of previous generations. Insofar
  as todays elite is compared to earlier ones, it
  seems overly-prudent and goal-oriented. Butand
  this requires another contrastwhat seems dour is
  not dour to them they are not money mad but
  rather ambitious.

13
Understanding the writers techniques

• 5. In the first part he uses observation and
  illustration. In the second part he uses
  statistical studies and authorities. He does so
  because in the first part he can rely on his own
  observations and offer distinct examples but to
  grasp the full import of these examples requires
  the context of a generation and a society as a
  whole, and this cannot be achieved by observation
  alone.

14
Understanding the writers techniques

• 6. It is a good conclusion because it summarizes
  and encapsulated the essay as a whole the thesis
  statement is found here, in the conclusion.

15
Mixing Patterns

• Illustration the emails Paidea (par. 4)
• Comparison shooting the breeze vs. Paidea (par.
  4) the Clinton elite and this elite (par. 12)
• Analysis par. 6 par. 8