"I often feel obliged to tell people, even if they don't ask, that it was Andover (not Harvard) that taught to me to think and write critically." Alexander Heffner is not waiting for your questions.

The Harvard Crimson calls our attention to Heffner's bold op-ed in US News & World Report, in which Heffner, a Harvard junior, courageously asserts that Harvard is not so great, because of the big class sizes and all.

In reality, more often than not, faculty here are inaccessible, students are unengaged interpersonally, and two way education is an anathema. After a recent class, I remarked to the tenured professor that I had completed more in-depth research papers in high school, where I had possessed unrivaled access to my teachers and unlimited guidance during the research process, than I had in my time in Cambridge. "That's the problem with this place," the professor grinned, not in the least surprised. "There is not enough contact between professors and students."

BLOCKBUSTER. Heffner advises the nation's media that "The examples of Harvard's deficit in undergraduate learning are many—and any reporter brave enough to question the veneer and interview students would find more." But where o where in all the land would we find a reporter brave enough to do so? We may have to by satisfied with simply paying heed to the experience of Alexander Heffner, Harvard '12, who concludes his essay by telling prospective Harvardites "If you aren't accepted, or if you never applied, consider yourself fortunate: you will receive a better education in the bargain."

Go, follow-up interview:

Mistake or not, Heffner is here and has no plans to transfer. Rather, he intends to keep making his opinion known from inside the Harvard community.

"If in a year and a half my feeling has changed, I will document that publicly as well," Heffner wrote.

As well he should.