middle west shortcomings

In this month’s Vanity Fair there was an article on Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut. Miss Porter’s is known for its famous “ancients” (why this word is preferred to “alumni,” I do not comprehend), such as Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Gloria Vanderbilt.

I had to laugh out loud at one point when the article talked about the school’s culture of “making girls aware of their shortcomings, be they related to background or appearance.” One of the ancients they interviewed hailed from the great state of Nebraska:

Omaha-raised Letitia Baldridge recalls that she was the first student ever on scholarship, which she immediately learned was a dirty word… Her teachers were determined to beat the Nebraska out of her. “My English teacher, Miss Watson, said to me, ‘You come from the Middle West, and it’s going to take you a year or two to get over that.”

Filed under: In the world