It’s been a while since I’ve written but this afternoon, as I rode the lawnmower around the yard and my girls picked up limbs, inspiration struck me. The recent college admissions scandal that has roiled Hollywood and the nation is just too much low-hanging fruit. It has caught up some of the finest actors of our generation and also some who, although pretty, might not be considered master thespians. Something that they do have in common, however, is enough disposable income to give their children an unfair advantage gaining admittance to some of the finest higher institutions of learning in our country.

The ways in which these millionaires gave their children a “leg up” into college is as sordid as any Hollywood story line. One was a $15,000 payment, disguised as a charitable gift, which was paid to a current FBI informant who controlled a testing center and allowed the student’s answers to be corrected by a professional test taker. Another saw a Hollywood star’s daughters listed as recruits for the rowing crew at USC in order to allow them admittance into a school they evidently didn’t have the qualifications to enter.  Faux tutors have also admitted to pretending to be the students themselves and take tests in the place of the youngsters; one even going so far as to ask for a writing sample so their “work” would match.

Perhaps the least surprising thing, for me anyway, about the entire episode is the outrage and disgust expressed by news commentators, talking heads, and my Facebook feed. As for myself, I’m about as shocked by these allegations as Captain Renault was that there was gambling going on at Rick’s Cafe.  As one person online said, “I just always assumed that rich people bought their kid’s way into college.” So, honestly are we really angry that something we thought was happening anyway turned out to be true. Does it turn the knife just a little more that it is a bunch of Hollywood Lefties taking advantage of the system when they so often preach equality and #metoo?

What about the colleges and universities themselves?  Are they somehow complicit or are they, as has been indicated by the President of Wake Forest, victims of fraud in their own right.  Should I be offended that N.C. State wasn’t on the list or can I thump my chest and say they are above such foolishness and that I earned my way into college.  Will these schools now have an even greater influx of applications since they are also the choice of the Youtube elite? Will this whole scandal affect America’s perception of affirmative action and make folks more cognizant of the role that affluence plays in the ability to get into college?  I don’t know.

What I do know is that after being a teacher for 14+ years I’m rarely surprised at the length parents will go to in explaining away bad behavior or in the skewed perception they have of their children’s merits.  I’ve known parents to request classes their kids don’t qualify for because they think it will somehow raise their efforts to match the rigor or because they don’t want them around kids from “standard” classes. I’ve had kids use language that would make a sailor blush only to have their parents promise that their babies would never use any form of profanity and I’ve seen college level homework turned in from students that couldn’t tell you the capital of North Carolina using Google.  

The point is children make you crazy and most of us would go to almost any length to give our kids the life we wish for them.  Some of us have integrity, some of us have money, and some of us have both. One final thought for the talking heads. Is it worse to have your mom pay money for you to take someone’s spot at a prestigious university or to have someone take your spot in Vietnam because your dad paid a doctor to write you a sick note?