I never thought I’d find myself posting on a “Chance Me” thread, but I’ll burst if I don’t weigh in here.
Putting aside the issue of affirmative action in school/college admissions–that is, putting aside whether groups that can’t get an even break in our society deserve a boost both for their benefit AND that of the majority (which clearly stands to benefit from having every group in our society do well)–there is still good reason, I believe for schools to have different criteria for different applicants.
Many children of black or Hispanic heritage grow up in homes where the advantages that many of us take for granted simply don’t exist. They might, for example, be living in dire poverty, which makes life difficult in so many ways. Maybe their parents have to work two jobs and are less available to read to them or to run through flashcards with them. Maybe their parents are unavailable to drive them to hockey lessons, or dance lessons, or music lessons–or they just don’t have the spare cash to pay for those things. Or perhaps their parents don’t speak English or are illiterate. There may not be any books in the house or any of the other things that can provide the sort of intellectual and cultural enrichment that contributes to doing well in school and on standardized tests.
Yet there is still reason to believe that there are many exceptional children within this demographic who, while they may not NOW have quite the same stats as more privileged children, are nonetheless truly exceptional and brimming with potential. I’m not talking about kids who wouldn’t survive academically at an elite boarding school. I’m talking, rather, about kids whose statistical profile may not quite match up with their more privileged classmates, but who may in various other ways be more than a match for their classmates. Maybe such children, by virtue of their background, have developed a grit and resiliency that would make them standouts in any group. Maybe they have other talents and aptitudes that make them exceptional and that point to their future success. Is it wrong for elite schools to ignore these outstanding children because in one narrow area–test scores, for example–they may not be at the very top of their class?
Talent comes in many guises and many packages. And when we look at conventional measure of success, sometimes it’s not the highest scoring tester who gets the best, highest paying job in every case, but rather the individual who has extraordinary social or interpersonal skills. Keep in mind, for example, that if it weren’t for the socially adept “rainmakers” at big law firms, the more academically gifted individuals who work in the back room would have no clients. And what of the dealmakers and CEOs who depend in large part on their social skills–their ability to understand and work with a broad range of people–to accomplish big things. Extraordinary social ability, or leadership ability, or “charisma,” for lack of better word, is a rare talent whose value in the real world should never be minimized. Such social intelligence–and it is just as much a form of intelligence as is the ability to do calculus–may well be the single most important attribute in just about any aspect of human endeavor.
So, if a school feels that it would be beneficial to its mission to accept individuals who might not have the top-most grades or test scores or the longest list of extracurriculars, then perhaps we should trust that they know more than we do and have valid reasons for doing so. Maybe schools are betting that such students will eventually raise their scores and put together impressive resumes, and that they just need the advantages that a boarding school community can offer to realize their full potential. Or maybe the school might believe that such children have had life experiences that truly make them special, and that the entire school community would benefit by having these children in the mix. Elite schools were never solely about one thing–academic performance–and they never will be. Selecting students solely for their scores and grades may be one way to put together a class, but I’m willing to believe that schools are on to something when they seem to suggest that it’s not necessarily the best way to do it.