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 