Jackie Goldberg, the president of the Los Angeles Unified School Board, said publicly last month that she was so put off by high school that she nearly dropped out of her GED after 11th grade instead of staying for a degree.
Rich Leib, the chairman of the UC Board of Regents, recently told a reporter that in high school he was in the bottom 2% on his SAT subjects in math and English. That, along with his score of less than 50 percent on the overall SAT, contributed to UC Berkeley’s rejection, he said.
Governor Gavin Newsom described himself as an unhappy elementary school student in January: “I couldn’t read and was looking for a way to skip class. I have false stomach pains and dizziness.”
Even President Biden admitted that he “didn’t do very well” in college, averaging just 1.9 grade points at the University of Delaware.
What was the point of all these admissions by officials about how horrible the school was and how miserable they were? What happened to you to show off your educational credentials and be at your best academically? Is Rep. George Santos (RN.Y.) the only public figure who bothers to lie about his education level?
This willingness to accept underperformance is relatively new. Twenty years ago, when George W. Bush was running for president, it was considered a disgrace that he graduated from Yale with a C average. A common question during the 2000 campaign: “Is George Bush smart enough to be president?”
And way back in 1987, long before he admitted that he “didn’t do very well” in school, Joe Biden tried to argue the opposite. He told reporters, among other exaggerations, that he graduated in the top half of his law school class — only to panic when it turned out he graduated 76th out of 85 in his class. “My memory of that was wrong,” he admitted.
Today he would say “76. of 85” at the top of his resume.
Something is happening in the way we look at merit and achievement, the way we measure success. Being a top student isn’t necessarily a better story than struggling in school.
In some cases, it may be a coincidence that politicians try to emulate recognizable, normal Joes. I suspect that Newsom, who was long born a wealthy man with countless benefits, has some of it. He recently tried to revise that story by showing that not everything has come easy for him, including at school.
In other cases it is probably less cynically calculating. I believe that Jackie Goldberg and Rich Leib genuinely try to find ways to connect with the students they serve, using their own backgrounds to point out that children face obstacles in school that they can overcome. This is a valuable message.
But I’d say there’s more to this, a growing sense that the outdated performance indicators may not be as meaningful as we thought. Suddenly, academic achievement—like being top of the class, doing well on standardized tests, and attending an elite school—is no longer seen as a sign of achievement and more as a sign of privilege.
The United States should be a meritocracy. The story goes that you can compete, rise and prosper here if you work hard and play by the rules, especially when it comes to education. This upward mobility is both possible and admirable.
But Americans recognize that this is not always the case. The playing field is just not level.
In 2020’s “The Merit Myth: How Our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America,” three education experts argued that America’s top colleges and universities primarily sustain the nation’s elite and students in the top 1 % favor at the expense of the rest.
In “The Tyranny of Merit,” Harvard political philosophy professor Michael Sandel argued that the myth of American meritocracy and what he calls “credentialism” has been proven wrong and is inherently unfair.
Today, many Americans understandably believe the system is rigged. That standardized tests are biased. That elite schools – are elite. That public schools have been turned down too many times and that public colleges are underfunded. That people with money can buy the certificates they need, Varsity Blues style.
It is perfectly correct to see structural racism in the fact that affirmative action is still hotly contested because wealthy students are admitted as “legacies” or because their parents make donations.
All in all, it is good that the country is rethinking what constitutes success, how it is measured, who the gatekeepers are and whether it is really available to all of us. We should looks at the dominance of Ivy League schools, the role of testing, the value of a college education, and the obstacles some students face.
It is healthy for our leaders to be honest about all their school experiences, not just their accomplishments. Expect to learn more about the hardships and humiliations they endured over the next few years.
But not by a notable memory, former President Trump, who described himself as “a very stable genius.” In 2015, according to his former attorney Michael Cohen, Trump threatened legal action against his high school, college and university administration if any of them released his grades or SAT scores.
Even at a time when the academic battle is controversial, he must feel he still has something to hide.
Source: LA Times
Roger Stone is an author and opinion journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He is known for his controversial and thought-provoking views on a variety of topics, and has a talent for engaging readers with his writing.
