Ask A Genius 514 – Affirmative Action for the Rich (5)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/03/16
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Rick Rosner: I would use Carole and myself, and our kid, as an example.
I mean, we had one kid, which meant our focus was one. I don’t think we wee helicopter parents. We weren’t Tiger Parents. We didn’t force her or push her to do things she didn’t want to do. But we were extremely available and helpful with whatever she wanted to do with preparing for college.
She wanted to get national merit. That’s an award – largely meaningless but still something nice to have based on performance on the PSAT, which is the qualification for the SAT. California having a bunch of people and a bunch of good students has a pretty high score.
My kid says, “I want to make national merit.” I say, “It is going to be brutal.” Before she fired me, I had her take 80 practice tests. I dug up 80 tests by buying old books of tests on eBay and online and so on. I went into semi-dark webby places, where people trade old tests.
I made her take more than 6 dozen practice tests and then she said, ‘Alright, that’s enough.” The kid with a single mom who is working two jobs. That kid and that mom have no freaking idea that people are being this psycho out in affluent white people land.
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