This whole college cheating scandal has me pondering a great many things, some closely related to the sordid story, and others only tangentially connected. My thoughts are jumbled, so I thought I’d try to organize them.
- What the hell!? Who does this kind of crap?
- Should a child born in, say Bumblebutt, Alabama, to poor parents be penalized for his/her lack of exposure to a wide variety of opportunities while kids born to wealthy parents are given access to the world? How do we equalize opportunities? How many intelligent, capable kids are shuttled through a flawed system that could instead be benefiting from their talents?
- Should the children of the parents who paid bribes to get them into elite colleges be punished for their parents’ wrongdoing?
- Is there a way for these parents to make amends in the form of paying for underprivileged students to attend college?
- Do we want to see these parents do jail time?
- If you had the money, and a lack of ethics, and wanted your kid to have a spot at an Ivy League school would you be more likely to offer a bribe or to pay for someone to boost your child’s SAT and/or ACT scores?
- I’m a great test taker. If there was money to be made in the test taking by proxy business would I be tempted?
- Who am I kidding? I can’t even cheat at board games.
- Is bribing a college admissions officer to admit one’s child any different from donating land or a building to a university in order to achieve the same results?
- Is anyone else really pissed off about the arrogance and sense of entitlement this scandal has exposed?
I’m not sure jotting all this down has helped organize my thoughts. What have I missed? What would you suggest? I’ve got more to say, but I’m saving it for later. Did I hear a groan out there?
For those who aren’t familiar with the above referenced scandal, here’s a link to a concise report from the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/us/college-admissions-scandal-questions.html
Praying for Eyebrowz 
Who does this? People that have a difficult time hearing the word no would be my guess.
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So few people tell them no.
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Who does this? Every entitled, wealthy, undeserving, arrogant, sycophant without a conscience, since time immemorial.
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I’m afraid you’re right.
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You know Leslie, you may say your thoughts were jumbled but you say what you need with crystal clarity. AND you have a commenter here above who is spot wherever we live whatever the situation x
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We basically have a president over here who benefitted from this type of unethical practice. And he’s ruining our country.
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Noticed your said ‘ruining’ the country instead of ‘running’ the country. You’re right – he’s running us into ruin!
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Absolutely!
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Well my darling, there is a similar thing happening here and he keeps chipping in his fat tuppence worth. Chin up. xxx
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Are we all screwed?
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I do hope not xxx
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I like your list. I shook my head in agreement at each of them. I went to a middle class state school in the Midwest and am still proud of that. I had good professors, a few of them might even have been classified as great. I took out loans and my parents helped whenever they could. THAT is how so many go to college, and we can each rest on our laurels and feel proud that we got an education earned based on our own merits. – Marty
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I’m working on an addendum for tomorrow. It’s kind of dry reading, but my head won’t let go of this.
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I followed the link. They probably voted for 45
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Without a doubt.
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I really like your idea in #4. Not only help out these low-income students but actually get to know them, like a pen pal kind of thing. Might open some privileged eyes!
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That’s a great idea. I’m all for logical consequences and making amends.
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