It seems paradoxical to require students to study college level material late into the night to keep up, but also aim to have equal outcomes.
The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
11–20 of 162 posts
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#12I thought when people talked about this kind of thing, they were being ridiculously hyperbolic.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#13Haha yes, exceptional! Governments have made scholarships and admissions a zero sum game. Ideally, all these public schools do this and those kids get fucked. Then my kids will have a better chance at all of this stuff.
You bet you'll see me voting for woke people in the public school district.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#14I'll tell you what my takeaway is:
It is incredibly stupid for the National Merit program to leave the decision to notify students up to the schools. In such a situation it is entirely 100% certain that a situation like the one at Thomas Jefferson High School will eventually happen. In fact it's probably happened multiple times already, due to incompetence, which is why it should scrapped.
From the article:
> On September 16 of this year, National Merit sent a letter to Bonitatibus listing 240 students recognized as Commended Students or Semi-Finalists. The letter included these words in bold type: “Please present the letters of commendation as soon as possible since it is the students’ only notification.”
You know what's better than a system where the schools need to be monitored to make sure they tell their students? A system where you don't have to scrutinize what the schools do, because you told the parents and the kids directly.
It's 2022. You have the information of the students who took the tests, obviously. This is a solvable problem. It can, and should, be fixed.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#15[flagged]
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#16[flagged]
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#17The opening paragraphs seem to imply that the awards were withheld based on race.
When you get into the meat of the article, though, it makes it more clear that the school just forwarded a paper cert to the kids, and didn’t make a big deal about it. And parents are complaining because the school didn’t make a big deal out of it or get it to students “fast enough” to apply for some early admission stuff.
It’s been a while, but I remember most of those “National Merit” type things to be not very important or relevant. It’s just based on your PSAT score.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#18I'll tell you what my takeaway is: It is incredibly stupid for the National Merit program to leave the decision to notify students up to the schools. In such a situation it is entirely 100% certain that a situation like the one at Thomas Jefferson High School will eventually happen. In fact it's probably happened multiple times already, due to incompetence, which is why it should scrapped. From the article: > On Sept…
I would bet that there has literally never been a school that failed to notify the recipients before now. It is not just an honor for the student, but the school itself.
Yes, now, the National Merit organization will probably come up with a direct notification procedure, but it was not a failure on their part to assume that schools would act in their own self-interest.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#19Haha yes, exceptional! Governments have made scholarships and admissions a zero sum game. Ideally, all these public schools do this and those kids get fucked. Then my kids will have a better chance at all of this stuff. You bet you'll see me voting for woke people in the public school district.
That’s the part you’re not supposed to say out loud. Keeping your kids on the right path and not falling into these mediocrity traps is important.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#20[flagged]
Is the article wrong on the facts? That is the only thing that matters.
Many Hacker News readers are in the same demographic that would be in contention for National Merit honors, so it seems pretty “on brand” for HN.