David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times, discussed life in the context of a high school cafeteria at a School Leaders Roundtable at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture in March 2017. The event featured dozens of leaders from 10 different sectors of education converging to discuss character formation in schools.
“I think of all of life as basically the high school cafeteria, writ large, and the search for identity,” Brooks said. “When I was in high school, most of my mental energy went to the cafeteria, and maybe 15 percent to the classroom, because I’m trying to figure out who the heck I am and that’s in the cafeteria.”
