--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I think one percent of the population…" description: "\"I think one percent of the population attended college when Wallace Stevens and Robert Frost and Gertrude Stein were at Harvard. Now I think forty perc..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d5/robert-hass-3548_college_i-think-one-percent-of-the-population-at_2827149.png" --- # I think one percent of the population attended college… ![“I think one percent of the population attended college when Wallace Stevens and Robert Frost and Gertrude Stein were at Harvard. Now I think forty percent of Americans have some college education. That's an astronomical change.” quote by Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d5/robert-hass-3548_college_i-think-one-percent-of-the-population-at_2827149.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d5/robert-hass-3548_college_i-think-one-percent-of-the-population-at_2827149.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d5/robert-hass-3548_college_i-think-one-percent-of-the-population-at_2827149.png) > “I think one percent of the population attended college when Wallace Stevens and Robert Frost and Gertrude Stein were at Harvard. Now I think forty percent of Americans have some college education. That's an astronomical change.” [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. He observes a dramatic rise in college attendance from elite to mass education. **In simple terms:** College attendance has surged dramatically. Key Takeaway Recognize expanding access to higher education. Themes education social change democratization Mood analytical hopeful Type sociological informative When to use this quote - policy analysis - career counseling - academic research Key Concepts massification knowledge diffusion Questions to Reflect On - What drives the increase? - How does this affect social mobility? A Different Perspective Statistical nuance may be missing. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [College](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/college/) [College education](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/college-education/) [Education](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/education/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) ## Related quotes > [He came after Homer and before Gertrude Stein, a difficult interval for a poet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-carson/he-came-after-homer-and-before-gertrude-stein-a-difficult-interval/) [Anne Carson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-carson/) > [I had learned of Gertrude Steins bon mot that medicine opened all doors. This prompted me, in different moods, to view my future life…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/harold-e-varmus/i-had-learned-of-gertrude-steins-bon-mot-that-medicine-opened-all/) [Harold E. Varmus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/harold-e-varmus/) > [When students are first at the Kerouac School we harp on Gertrude Stein's very basic poetic insistence that words are things . Not to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-waldman/when-students-are-first-at-the-kerouac-school-we-harp-on-gertrude/) [Anne Waldman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-waldman/) > [Gertrude Stein's prose-song is a cold, black suet-pudding… Cut it at any point, it is the same thing ... all fat, without nerve.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wyndham-lewis/gertrude-stein-s-prose-song-is-a-cold-black-suet-pudding-cut-it-at/) [Wyndham Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wyndham-lewis/) > [ON HER DEATHBED, Gertrude Stein is said to have asked, 'What is the answer?' Then, after a long silence, 'What is the question?' Don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-buechner/on-her-deathbed-gertrude-stein-is-said-to-have-asked-what-is-the/) [Frederick Buechner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-buechner/) > [ You are all a lost generation. \[with credit to Gertrude Stein\] ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-hemingway/you-are-all-a-lost-generation-with-credit-to-gertrude-stein/) [Ernest Hemingway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-hemingway/) > [Because anybody can write, but not everybody invents new forms of writing. Gertrude Stein invented a new form of writing and her imitators are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-kerouac/because-anybody-can-write-but-not-everybody-invents-new-forms-of/) [Jack Kerouac](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-kerouac/) > [Going to bed with Gertrude Stein, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Susan Sontag, or Margaret Thatcher: There are some things one prefers neither to do nor to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/going-to-bed-with-gertrude-stein-jeane-kirkpatrick-susan-sontag-or/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [Is the professor who insists we read Ernest Hemingway again instead of Gertrude Stein "obsessing"? Because although I did a BA in English, an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laura-mullen/is-the-professor-who-insists-we-read-ernest-hemingway-again-instead/) [Laura Mullen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laura-mullen/) > [The two greatest mannequins of the century were Gertrude Stein and Edith Sitwell - unquestionably. 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That got around to certain people and we all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothy-parker/gertrude-stein-did-us-the-most-harm-when-she-said-you-re-all-a-lost/) [Dorothy Parker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothy-parker/) ## More by Robert Hass > [It's the same with this idea of a literate public, and also of a democracy in which people have access to and really read…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/it-s-the-same-with-this-idea-of-a-literate-public-and-also-of-a/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [All the new thinking is about loss. 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So I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/when-i-was-in-college-i-lost-my-scholarship-one-year-i-had-enough/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [As poet laureate, I was asked to be a spokesman for literature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/as-poet-laureate-i-was-asked-to-be-a-spokesman-for-literature/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [After Pope, in the beginning of Romanticism, people developed the idea that imagination rather than reason was a special form of knowledge and its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/after-pope-in-the-beginning-of-romanticism-people-developed-the-idea/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [They are the kinds of things that make us a community: attachment to place, attachment to local arts traditions, the ability to read literature,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/they-are-the-kinds-of-things-that-make-us-a-community-attachment-to/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [I think that were I in the middle of an obsession to write about, say, sudden oak death in California or my grandchildren or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/i-think-that-were-i-in-the-middle-of-an-obsession-to-write-about-say/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [I suppose there's something to be said for the sheer reinforcement of our beliefs, but really I think poetry is more useful as disenchantment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/i-suppose-there-s-something-to-be-said-for-the-sheer-reinforcement-of/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [If you were making poetry out of convictions - trying to convince other people - you were in the territory of rhetoric, and that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/if-you-were-making-poetry-out-of-convictions-trying-to-convince-other/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [Milton was the first person who really experimented with putting politics into sonnets.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/milton-was-the-first-person-who-really-experimented-with-putting/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [When I came into the job, funding for the humanities at the federal level was being drastically cut. 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