In burying merit awards, school takes equity to an extreme

These ‘educators’ are failing in their essential role

Jeff Jacoby’s newsletter excerpt “The school that sabotaged its standout students” (Opinion, Jan. 5), about how officials at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., decided not to notify the families of top-performing students that they had qualified as National Merit Scholars, is nothing if not a wake-up call. The idea that we should jettison the aspirational goal of equality of opportunity for the defeatist goal of equality of outcome — we cannot have both — is one that promises the end of a vigorous society. By this inverted focus, so-called educators are simply giving up on the future.

Yes, we have a societal problem that needs solving, but shame on the “educators” who choose to solve it by ruining our best educational institutions and dumbing down their students. What happens to these students after graduation?

Those who cannot demonstrate reading, writing, and math-based skills in our increasingly tech-based society have been prepared to fail in the competitive job market; some may even fail to earn a living wage. Allowing them to graduate high school without preparing them for what follows is an abdication of responsibility. Educators who refuse to educate should be dismissed and replaced with educators who have their feet on the ground and who take their assignment seriously.

ARTHUR GELB

Belmont

The writer served for seven years on the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education, as an appointee of both Governor Michael Dukakis and Governor William Weld.