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The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
21–30 of 162 posts
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#22Rewarding bad behavior, regardless of its origin, does nothing but encourage more. My best friend growing up was Asian and worked his ass off every single day. I had a lot more fun than he did but he got into a better school and makes better money now because he fucking deserved to.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#23"Equal outcomes for every student" I'm genuinely curious what this is supposed to mean. Every student gets into the same university? They all get the same job at the exact same salary upon graduation? What is the real-world consequence of this policy supposed to be? If your outcome as a student is guaranteed to be equal to every other student's outcome, what is the incentive to work harder? Outcomes being equal doesn…
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Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#24"Equal outcomes for every student" I'm genuinely curious what this is supposed to mean. Every student gets into the same university? They all get the same job at the exact same salary upon graduation? What is the real-world consequence of this policy supposed to be? If your outcome as a student is guaranteed to be equal to every other student's outcome, what is the incentive to work harder? Outcomes being equal doesn…
This 22 second youtube video is the supporting evidence linked
by the article for that "equal outcomes for every student" line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujpcvIsMZBU
So, your guess is as good as mine, because that video certainly is not some kind of school policy position, as the article implies. I'm pretty suspect of the rest of it, since as someone else pointed out, the school actually did notify the students! They just didn't hold a big ceremony. The actual issue that the parents had is that the physical awards - which were delivered to students, in paper, at school, on their desks, did not arrive before early admission deadlines. The students were informed prior to the deadline by emails to their official school district accounts, which the article says they don't often check.
This just overall feels like a culture war hack piece, it's full of red flags from top to bottom, and I mean, it's from a Federalist byline...
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#25[flagged]
I upvoted because the focus should be on "academics and 'normal stuff'".
However, academics, as in what is taught, has been politicized almost forever. C.f., Texas Board of Education dictating to publishers which parts of history/etc can be taught.
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/revisionar...
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#26All of this stuff is just so hilariously nonsense.
Dude, some people have to lose. We can shuffle as much as we want, we can probably make them perfectly distributed amongst races, sexes, heights, weights, whatever.
But there will still be a shit ton of losers. It's just how the world works. You can't have 8 billion flying Tesla electric private jets to Malibu.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#27The 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 w…
Maybe there's a meatier part still, where the author alleges that they have yet to receive a certificate earned two years ago.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#28I'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.
I would guess that the number of people that act directly against their own self interest on a regular basis is a very high percentage of the population.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#29[flagged]
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Why do you think your kids are safer at public school from being molested? The stats would say you are safer at Catholic school where lines are less blurred and fewer teachers date students. But most likely to commit such an act is a parent or someone close to the child. Sending them to any school might be the safest option.
Re: The war on merit takes a bizarre turn
#30[flagged]
This comes across as ad hominem-ish. Do their argument and allegation stand on their own or do they not?