John's Blog: Affirmative Action
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Affirmative Action
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
I have recently been re-reading John Irving's memoirs, The Imaginary Girlfriend, which is included in a larger volume of essays and short stories, Trying to Save Piggy Sneed. In it, he explicitly admits that he was no stellar student growing up, and was able to attend the prestigious Exeter Academy in New Hampshire only because his father was on the faculty. He further concludes that the work habits he was forced to develop to overcome his academic weakness (which might possibly fit the definition of a learning disability today) and thereby keep up with the other students, have also informed his work habits as a writer, enabling him to become the successful author that he is today.Those who rail against affirmative action in the racial realm should take note. Here is a blatant example of discrimination based on an accident of birth. I am led to believe that the practice of guaranteed enrollment for offspring is a standard benefit of employment at a private school. (I wouldn't know first-hand, having come up through the public school system myself.) The situation is not as blatant at many colleges and universities, where acceptance is not necessarily guaranteed for those with alumni parents, although bonus points are certainly given for it. In either of these cases, isn't this grounds for a lawsuit by some less well connected student who wasn't accepted, who could claim that they were better academically qualified than the "faculty brat" or alumi child who did get in?
I am not necessarily advocating such lawsuits. However, it should be kept in mind by those who are so quick to point out analogous injustices on racial criteria. Inconsistent application of that criticism betrays a double standard in our society in general, if not actually in the minds of those criticizing. I would wager that a great many federal justices and members of congress have benefited from the kind of affirmative action that gave them a head start for who their parents are, whether they realize it or not. Certainly, we have suspicions about our Commander In Chief's admittance to Harvard.
Which is not to say that's bad. We can see in John Irving's case that he was able to overcome his deficiencies and go on to a successful career as a productive member of society. Would this have been possible at a less demanding public school? (To ask the question the other way around, would I myself have had better opportunities in life had I gotten my start at a more academically demanding private school?) Creating these kinds of opportunities is precisely what affirmative action was originally all about. I hope that we can once more, as a society, begin to appreciate this fact, rather than only see access to education as a zero-sum game in which helping some to win can only be accomplished by limiting others.
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