Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What's the Point? Busted meritocracy?

There's a cynical part of me that wonders why the bother here.

Society rewards good connections, as well as good social skills, and intellectual stuff is generally left to the campuses.

And reading lately the various NYT items and such, and Ross Douthat's book on Harvard, makes me think that the Big Push of the 1980s toward a meritocratic society has simply failed.

Perhaps better networking, rather than better grades, is the way to go.

The push for meritocracy here is pretty simple to understand... since our kids have higher abilities, it only stands to reason that, through merit, they'd inherit the earth.

The wealthy use their wealth to promote their children above others. The well-connected use their connections.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Big Push." If you're referring to the economic theory of the name, I don't think there has been an example of that in the US on a national scale since the Apollo program... unless you count the military buildup of the 1980s, which was quickly reversed towards the end of the decade.

Well the 'big push' neatly side stepped an entire cohort of young low income white men born in the 70s onward.

If you were fortunate to not be born a low income white male then I think you benefited greatly from preferential college admissions and grade inflation etc. However, a huge chunk of the population has indeed been excluded from preferential treatment due to their unfortunate accident of birth.

If 'affirmative action' looked at familial SES alone then it would get 100% of my support - it steadfastly refuses too and so it doesn't.

Certainly an interesting point for extraverts to consider; however, us poor introverts need to maintain certain delusions.

Then again some technical fields are a much more meritocratic subset of society in general where you can wallow away in the very low six figures independent of social networks, because you are just that good. In full simulation of larger society, you can also create the next big thing and catapult into entrepreneurship with very minimal capital expenditure.

What magical "rewards" are we talking about here?

Yay IT!

I also think that society rewards good connections and social skills. I think my daughter's IQ would probably be in the optimally gifted range but she was never tested. She is smart, socially connected, outgoing, attractive, and makes more money than my highly gifted stepson. Because she makes more money she can afford to travel and enjoy life. My daughter always seemed to have rich friends even in middle school when she was a cheerleader. When I was a single parent and couldn't afford vacations, her rich friends would invite her to go along with them on vacations. She meets a lot of interesting people and gets to travel. She has doctor friends, lawyer friends, older friends, younger friends, and if she has a problem with anything she has a friend she can ask for help.

I hope she can teach her little brother how to become more socially connected because I think it is just as valuable as a college degree.

Good thing, too.

I'm only bitter because lack of meritocracy that actually delivers what it promises hurts introverts disproportionately... and since a majority of super-bright people are introverts, it hurts us all as a society as well.

I don't see the shift toward non-meritocratic selection mechanisms as:
a) anything new, or
b) truly separate from the related issue of the narrowing definition of "success" and
c) of "normative" (which also throws away not only HG+ people-- but increasingly, BOYS) in classrooms.

It's all of a piece in my estimation. We are selecting for people who have been wise enough to choose their parents well, and for those who are compliant, complacent, and obedient, but gregarious schmoozers.

But I'm none of those things, and I'm pretty cynical as well.

Leaving the thinking to the academy isn't how cultures make economic advances. Just noting that.

By the way, my socially connected daughter has been telling my son that she thinks he should go to law school because her lawyer friends seemed to have the most time for travel and enjoying life. Her doctor friends make good money but are always on call.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.