Today, I attended my younger brother David's graduation from The Lawrenceville School. I haven't been to a high school graduation in quite some time. Both of my years at Humphreys County High School I have not attended the graduation ceremony due to my ardent belief that the majority of students who were to have diplomas conferred on them were undeserving. In part through fault of their own, though more egregiously through the fault of the adults around them charged with their educational nurturing and intellectual development. Myself included, at times. Regrettably.
The Lawrenceville School is quite the educational institution. An elite, northeastern U.S. boarding school where my little brother's schoolmates include the family members of royalty, comedic icons, corporate titans, and others. The campus is laid out over 800 acres of prime suburban real estate in beautiful Mercer County (my county!) and Lawrenceville is one of the top
feeder schools for the venerable Princeton University just a 10 minute drive up Route 206 past the governor's mansion, Drumthwacket. Students at Lawrenceville enjoy the benefits of a first-rate education fed from an endowment of over $200 million. I can recall conversations with my little brother where I remarked with awe that he should appreciate going to a school such as Lawrenceville where students who are barely teenagers can choose from a wide swath of courses in departments ranging from the staples of History and Mathematics to the specialties of Visual Arts and Religion & Philosophy. It is to be enjoyed, definitely.
Whenever I visit a school such as Lawrenceville I get reminded of the benefits that accrue from exposure to such a cast of schoolmates, instructors, and administrators who are in touch with the very levers of power of our world. I get reminded that many of the students David went to school with these past years were very different than students I attended high school with less than 10 miles away in inner-city Trenton at Trenton Central High School. For instance, the first student who was honored had a good five minutes of verbal praise heaped on her academic performance, community leadership, and relentless selflessness by the school's headmaster before receiving the first graduation prize of the morning. Another young lady who was honored established an award for a faculty member on campus, led three Hurricane Katrina relief trips, and had over 600 hours of community service under her belt in addition to being in the running for the school's valedictorian. Finally,
the valedictorian at The Lawrenceville School was a remarkable young man who amassed 24 A+'s while at Lawrenceville along with several A's and one, lone, embarrassing A-. Similar to what I was inculcated with after I escaped my desperation in Trenton to the luxuries of Harvard, students here are told from Day 1 that they will one day run the world. Surely, this is a scary prospect for students at 13 and 14 just as it was for me at 18. However, tis true.
In thinking of what students at The Lawrenceville School are being set up for I cannot escape looking at students on the other side of the meritocratic coin. Students who are not receiving first-rate educations that carry a price tag of over $120,000 over four years. Students who do not attend schools with students of diverse racial, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds. Students whose campus is full of cracking concrete, cramped classrooms, and misfunded (not underfunded, mind you) facilities in the middle of "nowhere." These students are those who I teach with the Mississippi Teacher Corps. At best, a chunk of the students I teach will get local service industry jobs at small restaurants, catfish plants, or the supermarket. A few will become the top dogs in Humphreys County as teachers or will conjure up the money and determination to leave Humphreys County as so many of them seem to want so badly. Most, however, will join the ranks of the baby mama's and deadbeat dads who drink alcohol more than water and party more than they read changing little of their educational level, socioeconomic status, or weekly habits from the time they're 15 until they're 50.
I am a firm believer that there has to be some way to reconcile these two dichotomies. I'm not sure if I've found the remedy exactly but there is an interesting
prospect on deck. More on Tuesday....