Most of us grew up learning that we get what we deserve — if we work hard we get a reward; if we don’t work hard we can’t expect a reward.
And most of us accept this principle. It’s part of our whole concept of fairness. But maybe that principle is about to be trashed like so many other principles we were taught to live by.
During the holidays you may have seen the news from Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia. That school withheld from students the notice of their high achievement on the PSAT, a test similar to the ACT that most Mississippi students take to get into college. Those who score in the top 1 percent on the PSAT become prestigious National Merit Semifinalists and Finalists and can be awarded large scholarships at the best colleges.
Earning the high status but not knowing it, the students were not able to include that information on their applications for admission to top colleges, where acceptance is highly competitive.
Why would a school fail to notify its students of such an accomplishment?
Writer Margaret Flavin said, “In a race to the bottom, the school has implemented an equal outcomes for every student without exception policy [that] includes eliminating zeroes and giving students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up.”
School administrators decided that recognizing high achievement hurts the feelings of those who cannot attain the highest levels. Their solution is to eliminate any evidence that one student is smarter than another and make all academic effort look equal. At least at this high school, feelings and false self-esteem are now more important than effort, sacrifice or ability.
Thomas Jefferson isn’t the only school that puts feelings first. The mother of one student said, “The ‘war on merit’ is an issue within the education system nationwide. It’s a part of this agenda that is the dumbing down of America.”
Some high schools have eliminated the practice of naming valedictorian, salutatorian and historian to recognize their top academic students. I guess the most popular kid in the class now gives the graduation speech instead of the highest achieving one.
Another writer said, “A generation coddled by ‘participation trophies’ is now facing what happens when hard work is replaced by the need for ‘equity’ in the war on merit.”
That means that the very kids who felt good about themselves for ‘earning’ a trophy just sitting on the bench at the big game now have to accept what that means in the field of academics, where they may shine more brightly: everyone’s academic success must also be recognized as being equal; just as no one player can be rewarded over another, no one student can be honored over another.
The concept of equal outcomes arises from the mistaken idea that feelings and self-esteem must be protected at all costs and that any failure might crush a child’s ego. Actually, every person will fail many times at many things, and such failure is the process necessary for learning and building character. Denying high achievers the reward for their work and ability only promotes mediocrity and suppresses achievement. Pavlov’s dog and human beings stop trying if there’s no reward.
We’re already seeing the results of the Equal Outcomes movement in society that includes a plan to equalize incomes.
Already, some American workers, once the best in the world, have seen that they can make as much money not working as they can on the job, thanks to government supplements. Why work?
Wealthy people are being vilified today, as if any risk or achievement that makes you richer than someone else has been the result of either selfish greed at best, or a crime at worst. Look what’s happening to Elon Musk, whom the left is trying to “cancel.” Achieving wealth, which often leads to building companies that provide jobs and services, is a bad thing all of a sudden.
So why not apply “equal outcomes” to other endeavors, like sports? Maybe insist that the NFL draft the worst players on college teams to give them a confidence boost? Forget looking for another Tom Brady. Draft the whiney one that looks good in a uniform!
Don’t send the best athletes to the Olympics next time. Sent the ones who just deserve a trip to Paris!
And no fair taking only top medical students to train as brain surgeons. Instead, take the kid who washed out of carpentry classes at the vocational school. He likes to saw on things and should be rewarded with a chance to work on brains so that he doesn’t go through life feeling left out!
If all this “equal outcomes” stuff sounds like more socialism, it is. They don’t really care about our feelings. Socialism requires a public that does as it’s told, a public that is trained not to succeed but to wait for the government, which is much smarter than we are, to direct it. So we’re on our way to socialist “success,” where, as Winston Churchill once warned the world, we’ll all be equally miserable.
