Michael Portillo Quotes

I ended up going to Harvard College, which was about as likely in my neighborhood as going to the moon.

I support high academic standards. Period.

You don't immediately adopt the values and the framework of this, the academically successful world, just because okay now you kids get to go to high school.

I'm not arguing for a return to the grammar school system, but there must be a way of identifying bright kids from ordinary backgrounds and giving them a world-class education.

John Edwards comes from working folk, just like me. John Edwards worked hard and excelled to get his education, just like me.

I don't know why people question the academic training of an athlete. Fifty percent of the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their classes.

I definitely had a top-notch education.

Is my science of a level consistent with other people who have gotten the Nobel? Yes.

Outside of the family, education is the greatest determinant of social mobility.

I had to get good grades and do well in school - my mother was an assistant principal and my father was a teacher - and they took this very seriously.

I am a product of affirmative action. I am the perfect affirmative action baby. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in the south Bronx. My test scores were not comparable to my colleagues at Princeton and Yale. Not so far off so that I wasn't able to succeed at those institutions.

Competition among schools is always a great motivator.

If I was freer than I had ever been in my life, I was not yet entirely free, for I still hung on to an idea that had been set deep in me by all my schooling so far: I was a bright boy and I ought to make something out of myself... something else that would be a cut or two above my humble origins.

My parents don't press it but, you know, they're into good grades.

I went to the Wharton School of Finance, the toughest place to get into. I was a great student.

In today's global economy, however, it is important to raise the bar of excellence even higher. Today's students must be prepared to compete effectively on an international level.

I have never gotten a B in my life. I would honestly be mortified if I got a B. I'm so academically driven.

I was in that part of the class that made the top half possible.

I went to a very academically competitive high school. So I was always quite studious and quiet, just to keep up with the other geniuses who were in my school.

Cultural dominance of middle-class norms prevail in middle-class schools with a teacher teaching toward those standards and with students striving to maintain those standards.

It is a privileged school with beautiful buildings in a beautiful setting. But the only justification for privilege is that it should help people develop themselves to the full. We are elitist, but not exclusive. And I'm not in ashamed in the least of being elitist. All that means is aiming at the highest standards you can achieve.

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent.

What's wrong with being elitist if you are trying to encourage people to join the elite rather than being exclusive?

Americans don't realize how difficult it is to create a Harvard.

We never see the fancy schools with the blazers and ties in films about Africa! But, in fact, we too have class and elitism.