"The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you'd never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools"
About this Quote
The subtext is sharper: we know this, and yet we keep pretending we don’t. Quindlen points the finger not at kids for buying the story, but at the culture and schools for selling it. That “you’d never know it” twist exposes an institutional doublethink. Education is supposed to be the pipeline from ability to opportunity, yet it often mirrors the same status games it claims to transcend: sports pep rallies, social capital, the quiet privileging of the likable over the brilliant, the camera-ready over the curious.
Context matters. Quindlen, writing as a journalist steeped in late-20th-century media critique, is diagnosing a society that increasingly trains young people to perform themselves. Her complaint isn’t nostalgia for nerds; it’s a warning about misaligned incentives. When schools echo culture’s popularity economy, they don’t just misread the future - they help sabotage it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Quindlen, Anna. (2026, January 18). The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you'd never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-future-is-built-on-brains-not-prom-court-as-9648/
Chicago Style
Quindlen, Anna. "The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you'd never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-future-is-built-on-brains-not-prom-court-as-9648/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you'd never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-future-is-built-on-brains-not-prom-court-as-9648/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
