Carnivorousness

If you come in my cage I'll eat you too!

Sunday, November 08, 2009

I love this guy!

A letter from the SF Chronicle,

"This is in response to a "Teen Rant" of Oct. 18 by Lizzie Logan, who complained about SAT tests. Lizzie believes that the tests are unfair because they give an advantage to students from rich families. Here is what I'd like to tell Lizzie:

Yes, Virginia, the colleges do prefer knowledgeable students who are already fluent in trigonometry and calculus, who have a reasonably rich lexicon and who can convey their thoughts in the form of an essay. Otherwise, the students will have to spend two out of four college years taking remedial classes. Our society does not need engineers who study engineering subjects proper for only the two remaining years.

The same applies to any field of endeavor: baseball, skating, saxophone playing or journalism. A baseball coach might feel sorry for an unskillful candidate who just has not had a chance to play the game with his parents. But usually a coach simply cannot afford to take such candidates in the hope that they might catch up later.

Whether you like it or not, we live in a competitive society that encourages excellence. That's why we have a football Hall of Fame, Nobel Prizes and Oscars. Do some kids have an unfair advantage over others because their parents are able and willing to tutor them or hire professional tutors? You bet they do, and the difference is obvious by the age of 5. The parents who read books to their kids, who teach them to count, who engage them in intelligent conversations create this "unfair" advantage. Have you thought about directing your rants toward your parents rather than colleges?

What is the alternative? The alternative is a drab, uniform, conformist society, which exists in some totalitarian countries. Such societies do not invent the telephone and do not discover penicillin. Would you rather live there?"

Eugene Veklerov is a semi-retired scientist who has worked at the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for more than 30 years. He has three children, and he was their SAT tutor. And he lived half of his life in a totalitarian country.

14 Comments:

At 8:16 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh snap. Score one point for the adult!

 
At 5:45 PM , Blogger ricpic said...

Does "poverty" (I put scare quotes around that term because no one whining about being poor in America has the slightest notion of what genuine poverty entails) keep someone from finding a library and availing him/herself of the books therein? No, you worthless piece of crap complaining about the advantages of the rich. If you had it in you you would have educated yourself. But you didn't. You didn't have it in you so you sully the air with your resentment filled crap. Totally predictable. Anyone who goes on and on about the rich is worthless. And dangerous. Like our prez.

 
At 7:59 PM , Blogger Miss Carnivorous said...

I am afraid that Eugene is a credit to his totalitarian education. Perhaps our children should have to go through a totalitarian style eary ed system. That way they will know how good they have it later on.

 
At 9:46 PM , Blogger Wakefield Tolbert said...

You might just be surprised at JUST how bad things can get. An interlocuter from the UK hopped in on a FB thread about "universal healthcare" (ie--Eurosocialist glop) a few week back and groaned like hell that the mere fact of poverty means the US "still has human slavery" and that being "forced" to pay your own way for services like healthcare meant you were a de facto slave, etc.


Pointing out to this goober that Britain sold her freedom decades ago for free dentures and 18 month MRI waiting lists of course was to no avail.

It never it.

Guess he never caught on to who really had the involuntary servitude.

 
At 8:34 PM , Blogger James Nicholas said...

I might not be quite so quick to toss off the young Miss. It is frustrating to hear this kind of airy fluff, but it tells us more of her educators than it does of the sixteen year old girl. I have the same frustration when speaking with my nieces, who are nice kids and quite bright, but don't try to probe what they think of the country's history. Victimhood is as much a part of our educational objectives as is multi-cult, revisionist history.

 
At 5:24 AM , Blogger Wakefield Tolbert said...

It never it.


"It never IS"

Can't write anymore since I mangled my finger.....geeez

 
At 10:01 AM , Blogger James Nicholas said...

I thought that was some sort of high brow logical argument I wasn't following,

A is A

Not really. ; ) I believe we all understood you, Wakefield.

There is almost a religious quality to the faith that these people put in government, which some experts warn is extreme.

(Nice to have that applied the other way for once).

 
At 12:17 PM , Blogger Miss Carnivorous said...

Wakefield, do British dentures look just like British teeth????

 
At 1:00 PM , Blogger Wakefield Tolbert said...

*lol*

M.C.

Good question! Hadn't thought that one over all the way.

And who can be sure for Brits?

American dents are fantastic if pricey.

I'd say if the dentures are in that piss poor shape, no improvement is made, and why even bother?

If the Brit dentures are good, while I disagree with government-controlled dentistry, I'd also say go ahead and get those sharky choppers fixed or replaced ASAP.

 
At 2:15 PM , Blogger Miss Carnivorous said...

Remember, Brits don't want perfect teeth. They make fun of our perfect teeth.

 
At 2:20 PM , Blogger Wakefield Tolbert said...

Well...yeah..if you got that Willy Wonka, 50 pounds of railroad tracks and headgear, as they call it, you're overdoing it.

And yeah, when you whiten them up and everyone knows you've had your 5 cups of black coffee and 2 packs of Marlboro Lights a day going on for 20 years, it's a givaway this ain't God's teeth or what your mamma gave ya.

True enough. Americans CAN look El Fako....

But lord help the poor Limies; it's hard to eat your crumpets with that sandtiger shark look and the teeth are not in the same general direction.

 
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