Self-Destructive Behavior |
The College Admission "Scandal"
Yesterday
it was announced that actress Lori Laughlin was released from prison. She and
her husband were convicted of spending $500,000
to bribe a number of faculty and administrators at the University of
Southern California in an effort to enroll their two daughters without passing
the entrance examination. A
“fixer” was given the money in order to distribute it to several university
employees. The
stupidity of this effort to bribe is evident. First. It should have occurred to
these parents that they could have given the University a gift of $50,000. That
would have insured the admission of their children ipso
facto. Moreover,
there is no reason to believe that any high school graduate cannot pass an
entrance Long
experience has taught me that there is a good deal of ridiculous propaganda
among students which claims that certain courses or examinations are extremely
difficult and cannot be understood by most students. Yet, the fact is that
normal Americans sit in all the classes taught in our universities and year
after year learn everything from anthropology to zoology, including math,
English, history, writing, foreign language, etc. I
am writing of the average, normal student. Therefore, the two children of the
Giannullis could of course have passed the entrance examination.
There
are without doubt a few, a very few, who are intellectually somewhat superior to
us average people. Yet, it is evident that the average student learns the entire
curriculum. Anybody who has an interest in a subject matter and wants to learn
it can do so. Anybody who wants to learn calculus can do so, although someone
who hates history or English may have a problem with these subjects. All that is
needed is willingness to learn and an effort to achieve results. There is no
need to bribe anybody. There is only a need to forget about the boring TV and
enjoy your Latin lesson, the beauty of mathematics, the excitement of reading
history, and the great happiness that study and scholarship brings to all who
love it. “Fools
rush in where angels fear to tread,” wrote the great poet Alexander Pope.
Unfortunately, so many of us allow ourselves to miss the wonderful books, great
operas, magnificent Renaissance art, and all that is useful and satisfying in
life in favor of loud screaming
which passes as popular music, or badmouthing our fellow men, despite the work
of Yisroel Kagan, “The Chofez Chayim.” It is also noteworthy that books and
ebooks can be borrowed from public libraries for free, so that real enjoyment
costs nothing, while smelly nightclubs and so called entertainment wrecks your
budget and isn’t worth the entrance fee. May
Shem Yisborach protect us from being our own worst enemies. Shalom u’vracha. Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including Gender, Sex, & Status (2019). |