Those are mantras I use to sort of kick my butt and get past
annoying situations. The older I grow, the more often I walk into “old person”
situations. Situations in which I am a faceless old person.
Today I read in The Washington Post, the FBI finds wealthy parents, including “stars”,
use bribery and fraud to have their children admitted to Georgetown, Yale,
Stanford. Fifty are charged, thirty-three are parents.
The investigation
is ongoing and others can be investigated and charged. Boston’s U.S. attorney
called it the largest ever college admissions scam prosecuted by the Justice
Department. And the scheme was
discovered accidentally.
“These parents are a catalogue of wealth and
privilege,” said Lelling, Boston U.S. Attorney. “This case is about the widening corruption of
elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with
fraud. There can be no separate college admission system for the wealthy, and
I’ll add there will not be a separate criminal justice system, either.”
That raises my confidence in returning honor and
integrity to the process.
Parents being duped are half my age. Colleges participating,
or receiving rigged SAT’s and other college admission scores range from coast
to coast.
Laura’s junior class took ACT tests today. That
acronym stands for American College Testing. SAT is Scholastic Aptitude Test.
The tests took all morning. I asked what classes she had in the afternoon, and
she replied “Nothing. All the juniors went home and had no classes.” Well, the
juniors with cars.
Laura ate lunch until all the lunch periods were
over. Then she cleaned her art teacher’s palettes, spent one period talking
with her 9th grade history teacher and another talking with her 10th
grade history teacher. Then rode the bus home.
I stopped to read some comments to the Post article. Here
is a showstopper: “The rich don't look at everyone else and see people,
they see the unwashed masses that are obviously not as good as they are,
otherwise they would be rich too.” Signed
therealgrimm
That is quite the quilt...all those figures peering around the corner and hoping for prosperity to be there.
ReplyDeleteI am hearing this news about these rich people paying for their children to go to exclusive schools. This has been going on forever and I'm surprised it's finally being caught and convicted.
ReplyDeleteTrump got into the University of PA, Wharton school and Bush went to Yale and the Harvard School of Business. How do you think that happened? We are not all equal.
ReplyDeleteProsperity is hidden under the quilt.
ReplyDeleteI feel so sad for the children who got into college not on their own merits, because their parents greased the skids so they could slide in. When will they be able to grow up?
ReplyDeleteIf I were one of those children, I would feel like a total fraud, no pun intended.
DeleteFantastic quilt.
ReplyDeleteWealthy parents bribing folk to have their kids' test scores improved, tests taken in their entirety, photos altered to show their children having participated in a sport they know nothing about, etc. What a mess.
I feel for the children who were left in the dark about how they got in to the uni of their choice. It sounds as if some of the kids were complicit in this scheme. Such a shame.
AND the most disturbing thing, well all of it really, but what really rubs me is that all but ONE person - Democrats!! Fox is having a field day!!
ReplyDeleteI read about that earlier today. It boggles the mind. And it makes a mockery of those colleges and those kids.
ReplyDeleteAnd it means that kids who legitimately qualified for university entrance couldn't get in because the spaces were filled with cheaters. And to what end? Getting in is just one small part, they have to keep their grades up, do the assignments or they flunk out!
ReplyDeleteThat is a shame when there are so many worthy of such a quality education and earn the grades, etc., but won't get in because of cases like this.
ReplyDeletebetty
Oh, where to start? And even more importantly, where to finsh?
ReplyDeleteProsperity is most definitely just around the corner- just not for everybody...
Money can buy almost anything. Except maybe principles and ethical behaviour.
Alphie
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteI suspect there is a fair bit of this going on over this side too - because the standard of some of the 'studentship' leaves me wondering how some of these kids ever completed school... YAM xx
They go to elite schools and still they need to cheat to get into college???? Hmm ..I think of the saying You can't make a silk purse with a sow's ear"....
ReplyDeleteFantastic quilt..just around the corner..jam tomorrow..nothin nis new as we haven't learned from history...
I despair that this revelation is just the tip of the iceburg. How many literally "paid" their way through school, not legitimately earning credits? I think the numbers would be huge.
ReplyDeleteI love your mantras Joanne, I adopt them.
ReplyDeleteThis confirms what we always thought.
ReplyDeleteIt's a tough life, bring rich.
ReplyDeleteWealth and privilege are not usually accumulated by being nice, scrupulous or particularly honest.
ReplyDeleteSo wait a minute- you mean that rich kids AREN'T necessarily smarter than kids whose parents aren't as well off? Who knew?
ReplyDeleteThat's really choice. Here in my city, one college you didn't mention is also on their list. University of San Diego...a large Catholic institution that fills the top of a hill over the bay. Big stink...lots of fuss, et al. They are heading to court today.
ReplyDeleteIt is appalling that this has happened. At the same time it has been happening for years. How many wealthy parents give an endowment or donate a new wing to a building or build a new sports field in order to grease the way for their children to get into a particular school? I could suggest names but I have no proof so I am better off to shut my mouth.
ReplyDeleteyep, the only thing the rich need to get what they want is to be rich. University of Texas is one of the schools. My granddaughter worked her ass off to get the grade point average and scholarships she needed to get in.
ReplyDeleteWe were at Target yesterday, using the self checkout. The software running it has a known problem with bananas. We had to have the "helper" come reset the screen and he began to speak to us as if we were old and feeble and stupid. I really wanted to tell the little twerp that I had been coding since before he was alive. But I didn't, it's just not worth the emotion. So, I'm ignoring.
ReplyDelete"Just ignore it..." I am trying, I am trying...
ReplyDeleteI am finding it harder and harder to ignore all the crap the rich get by with.
ReplyDeleteThe quilt yes. The widening disparity between super wealthy and abysmally poor. The obscenity of billionaires. The arrogance and greed of never funding an education for a needy clever student and on we go......
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
This scandal is disgusting and heartbreaking. How can we regain some of the momentum we've lost........Or did I just imagine we had momentum?
ReplyDeleteI imagine there is lots of sympathy for these parents who’ve been charged. Imagine what these children will be like as adults.
ReplyDeleteI am remembering our friend Jeanette and her bumper sticker,
ReplyDeletePOOR HELP EACH OTHER
RICH HELP THEMSELVES
"Prosperity is just around the corner" A far away corner on a never ending street for most..
ReplyDeleteI heard about the college admissions on the TV news here last night and was appalled. now I'm thinking maybe some of that goes on here too, with politicians bribing the way for their children. I hope not, but time may expose them.
I'm rather glad these parents have been found out, although sad too that their children now think that money can buy them anything they want. If they had to live and work in the real world there'd be a lot of disappointment.
The comment in the Post is spot on. Funny how the rich always maintain their wealth is hard-earned and has nothing to do with family assets or inheritance.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, bribing your way into college isn't a big issue here in the UK. But one popular tactic is to move house to an area with better schools so as to get your kids into one of those schools.
That quilt really is a case of every picture speaks a thousand words Joanne isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI encountered it years and years ago. It moved me. It is a national treasure and was donated to the Smithsonian (I believe) by someone who found it among a relatives' artifacts.
DeleteAt some stage these young people are going to have to function on their own, surely. Or will they each be followed round college by a bodyguard/ventriloquist/essay writer?
ReplyDeleteWhen does the help stop?
Legacies and large donations have always allowed the wealthy to get their children into the best schools. My daughter's prep school even had scholarships devoted to students who were legacies. It infuriated her. She gave the financial aid officer hell and she was only 15 years old. She got into schools because of her merits. I'm glad she didn't miss out on excellent educational experiences because of some entitled kid, but some other kids must have been rejected because their places were taken by the wealthy.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie