Problems with Merit

Eaton College, Berkshire. Drawn by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Engraved by W. Radclyffe. 1831

Allow me to go back. The year was 1933. My father and his younger brother were in a preparatory school in England. His family was middle class but striving to rise. (Class was quite a real issue in those days in England). Private preparatory school was a difficult luxury for his family. It was well understood that the Cross boys needed to excel so as to qualify for one of the great English public schools (it is confusing but in England the term “public school” refers to a private school not funded by the state). The great hope was that by rising to the top my father could qualify for a merit scholarship to a top public school like Eaton College.

Unfortunately my father witnessed his brother receiving an undeserved and brutal beating from the hand of one of the teachers. My father intervened and was later somewhat vindicated by subsequent investigation. Although he was not expelled, his chances to be the top student were ended because the teacher in question had the power to block him and, in fact, did so.

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I observed an incident at Knox High School about 10 years ago. A very bright and promising young man had just moved to town. He was confident and talented, gifted intellectually, musically and physically. His family background was strictly working class. No one in his family had gone to college. He got into a fight with a fellow student that happened to have a close relative in the high school administration. (This fight involved the attentions of a young lady.) This promising working class young man was expelled from school for a period of time, there was a mandatory reduction in his grades, and he lost his top position in the class. His rival suffered no similar setback and ended up as top student. The working class young man went into the military after high school. His rival with the well-placed relative went to college

If the Lilly Scholarships were available at that time, there is no doubt in my mind that the well-placed young man would have been a finalist and most likely a winner. He was top of his class, was from an “excellent” old-Knox family, and had ok SATs. His working class rival was 10 or 15 spots behind in class rank, had an expulsion record, and was from out of town. Even with better SATs, he would not have had a chance. In my opinion there was no doubt which of these students had the greatest merit, however it was not the student that ended up at college or would have ended up with a good chance at the fat scholarship.

This dynamic is still working in our school system. Only the potential $175,000 prize makes the dynamic even more brutal. All that it takes is one teacher or administrator that favors one student over another. Children of teachers and administrators are competing for this big fat cash award. Students from dubious family backgrounds are pretty easily eliminated from the competition. These students neither have the needed social skills to stay out of trouble nor have the needed connections to later get them out of trouble.

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The Starke County Community Foundation Lilly Endowment Community Scholars award is a merit award.