Yesterday, I read a short article in The Paris Review written by a former CUNY student (not one of mine) about her experience studying Joyce's Ulysses at CCNY. The article recounted the transformative nature of her experience against the backdrop of the chronic (and criminal) underfunding of CUNY, and was ultimately a paean to public education. But there was a tone to the article that I found a little off-putting and that I think unintentionally captures an unwelcome truth about the American class system: our criticisms often serve to reinforce it.

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