If You Can't Untangle, Cut. If You Can't Tweak, Hide
If You Can't Untangle, Cut. If You Can't Tweak, Hide
When merit rears its ugly head - cut it off. And don't tell the student you did. BTW - It's the National Merit that we are talking about
“But, but, but…,” you must be thinking, “but there are still things you can’t tamper with, like the National Merit Award. Please tell me they are still there. You can replace admissions with a lottery1, abolish grading, stop teaching all together, but you can’t cheat a National Merit award announcement away.”
No,…. but you can hide it.
For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology [the principal, Ann Bonitatibus, and the director of student services, Brandon Kosatka] have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships, […] affecting the lives of at least 1,200 students over the principal’s tenure of five years. Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors2.
Killing merit is an intractable problem, like untangling the Gordian Knot. You can’t solve it. But you can cut it away.
Hah, “Ann Bonitatibus,” you say, “the name of the principal was”? Bonitatibus is a dative (one gives something to it) plural of a Latin bonitās. And bonitās is (in particular) integrity in Latin. Did she give a bribe to her numerous integrities to make them shut the f**k up, … especially at night?
The War on Merit Takes a Bizarre Turn, by Asra Q. Nomani. City Journal, December 21, 2022.