Merit-Bashing
Tom Sowell nails it again:
A graduating senior at Hunter College High School in New York gave a speech that brought a standing ovation from his teachers and got his picture in the New York Times. I hope it doesn’t go to his head, because what he said was so illogical that it was an indictment of the mush that is being taught at even our elite educational institutions.
Young Justin Hudson, described as “black and Hispanic,” opened by saying how much he appreciated reaching his graduation day at this very select public high school. Then he said, “I don’t deserve any of this. And neither do you.” The reason? He and his classmates were there because of “luck and circumstances.”
The issue isn't just the misguided student who blames the meritocratic admissions process for lopsided outcomes (and they are lopsided -- out of 200 kids in my daughter's class, she is one of just three blondes). Of greater concern is the faculty, including apparently soon-to-be Justice Kagan's brother, who fail to diagnose that the real problem is a public school system that severely disserves those most in need, and instead would dilute what makes Hunter the outstanding school it is.
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Jun '10
Re: Merit-Bashing
Pretending that success is mostly the product of luck, lets lazy people, like me, off the hook much too easily.
Aug '10
Re: Merit-Bashing
My favorite part of Sowell's article:
That is pure luck, from the child's point of view. But from the parents' point of view, being this sort of family and associating with this sort of community is still something they can choose, even though it's often not easy. To raise your children right, no matter how dubious your previous life, is a great act of merit itself.
Re: Merit-Bashing
Exactly so, Heather. And it's amazingly creepy that the prevailing attitude among the faculty -- and the student they chose to speak -- is that kind of fashionable nihilism.
Does luck play a part in life? Of course. No one chooses his or her parents. But imagine if, instead of concluding that the system needed to be "fixed" and Hunter needed to be "reformed," the student had charged his classmates with "fixing" and "reforming" the 425 other public high schools in New York City?
Re: Merit-Bashing
And a great labor as well, outcome not guaranteed. With all the talk of Judge Walker's determination that a preference for heterosexual marriage is irrational, I can't help but reflect that, increasingly, the idea of the heterosexual family as a transgenerational project and a privileged site of hard work and sacrifice is being thought of and treated as irrational. What's rational, the new vision says, is treating your kids like people who are just as randomly distributed as people like you. It's in both your interest and your child's, according to the new vision, for the state to do all the important work in raising your child -- that is, in socializing and acculturating him or her. If you think otherwise you're just kooky. Your vision isn't at all an organizing principle for public life. So it must bend to ours.
May '10
Re: Merit-Bashing
I'm not a Bear Bryant fan, but to paraphrase one of his sayings, "You make your own luck." Some things - parents, country of birth, etc. - may be beyond your control. The breaks you get beyond that, however, very much are a function of what you make of your circumstances. Life is not a lottery ticket. When I hear people try to indict Americans for the good life they have, I like to acknowledge that, yes, we do have good lives - we work hard for them. Sorry, I make no apologies for that.
May '10
Re: Merit-Bashing
I heard Sowell today on Prager and he described his own luck in life: as an orphan he had the honor of being raised by parents who, while not educated themselves, were committed to Tom's education. His biological brother, raised by parents with a different set of values, wasn't so lucky: One day his parents asked why he was wearing such nice clothes. "I'm graduating from high school today," he said. "Oh" was their only response.
Aug '10
Re: Merit-Bashing
All you know need to know is this...there is a dean at Hunter College HS whose name is John Rose. Dean of Students? No. Dean of Academics? No way. Mr. Rose is the Dean of, ahem, Diversity. </retch>