I just listened to the this American Life on this today and came to two conclusions.
One - it is sad that Nikole Hannah-Jones was proven wrong. It felt like on some level, her greatest sin was not playing to her caste. We don’t send our kids to those kind of schools. That being said the problem is incredibly hard. Maybe it is rich progressive values removing homework from schools. Maybe not. There was almost certainly some naivety that went into the decision.
2. Her daughter will be fine. Not even - one of the moral oddities of parenting and this parenting story. I want a normal happy life for my kid but normal happy lives aren’t often good defining stories. The strange thing is, if her daughter does well in high school, and goes to Howard and start sharing this story with her peers.
There’s a decent chance this story becomes a defining contradiction in her life. It’s too simple to say “she’ll realize her mother was right”. I wouldn’t go that far. But Having lived through this experience will likely be a powerful motivator and lens with which she looks at the world. The strange morality of it is - it could be good, great even, but it doesn’t mean her mom was right to do it.
A final note might be - one thing I’ve noticed about some left leaning folks who are successful. It’s really good to try and do your part to make the future better for the next generation. But I think sometimes people forget - they played the game and won the meritocracy. Making things fairer or easier shouldn’t get in the way of the hardships you have to overcome to be successful.
techblueberry•44m ago
One - it is sad that Nikole Hannah-Jones was proven wrong. It felt like on some level, her greatest sin was not playing to her caste. We don’t send our kids to those kind of schools. That being said the problem is incredibly hard. Maybe it is rich progressive values removing homework from schools. Maybe not. There was almost certainly some naivety that went into the decision.
2. Her daughter will be fine. Not even - one of the moral oddities of parenting and this parenting story. I want a normal happy life for my kid but normal happy lives aren’t often good defining stories. The strange thing is, if her daughter does well in high school, and goes to Howard and start sharing this story with her peers.
There’s a decent chance this story becomes a defining contradiction in her life. It’s too simple to say “she’ll realize her mother was right”. I wouldn’t go that far. But Having lived through this experience will likely be a powerful motivator and lens with which she looks at the world. The strange morality of it is - it could be good, great even, but it doesn’t mean her mom was right to do it.
A final note might be - one thing I’ve noticed about some left leaning folks who are successful. It’s really good to try and do your part to make the future better for the next generation. But I think sometimes people forget - they played the game and won the meritocracy. Making things fairer or easier shouldn’t get in the way of the hardships you have to overcome to be successful.