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by srk_hn
1337 days ago
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GPA, letters of rec, honors, and personal essays are all subject to the inherent privilege richer students and students in stable households have. Got to do something cool over the summer because your parents can afford to give you that luxury? Teacher writes you a letter of rec because they connect with you more. Have a stable household? GPA goes up and you take honors classes because your focus is uninterrupted. I was the kid who every year when asked what they did for summer said "nothing". I was the kid who missed homework assignments because of yet another argument or separation between parents at home last night where I played peacemaker. On my personal essays I had to lie and make up experiences I had never had because we simply did not have the money for a vacation or takeout. GPAs, letters of rec, honors only prove that a student has a safe and secure environment and they are able to excel over a long term. That is a reflection of privilege. For those of us who grew up in poor and broken households, standardized testing is the only chance for us to get a better life. Everyone who speaks out against it does so from a position of privilege because they have 0 idea what it's like to grow up in that type of environment. |
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For those of us who grew up in poor and broken households, standardized testing is the only chance for us to get a better life.
The suggestion that somehow there is a single path out of this sort of hell is overselling the point and over generalizing.
I grew up in a house where my parents were two warring alcoholics, one of which didn't want to have kids at all and the other didn't want the responsibility of raising them. And true enough, I didn't do well in the grades department... but I graduated, had some collected honors at graduation time, had the letters of recommendation I needed, and I absolutely participated in extra-curricular activities if anything to escape being home. Standardized tests? I took the ACT on a whim when my friend said he was going to go in the morning and asked if I wanted to join. I scored well (much better than I expected), not spectacular, just did well. Didn't really move the needle for me nearly so much as my ability to "work the room" with those that could help me get through school and onward as a sub-standard student. In the end I did fine.
My wife hits your points even closer. She was the child of poor immigrants whose mother was very severely schizophrenic. Between having no money and dealing with constant delusional and violent outbursts at home she managed to graduate high school as the school valedictorian (in a large metropolitan school), graduated with full honors, and received a full ride scholarship to her first choice school. She did the work because she knew if she didn't she wouldn't escape the hell of home she was in. Know what she didn't do well with? Her standardized tests. By the time she had reached high school she was prone to anxiety attacks and formal, timed tests were just too much. In fact later in life she wanted to take the GRE and go to graduate school and she couldn't get through the test without a full break down. Even so, she's done well in life despite it all.
But the point is that your expression of your experience is only that: your experience. For both my wife and myself, the standardized tests were simply not factors despite the hardships we faced. This is why anecdote isn't a good way to come to real knowledge... it might have been true for you but other's mileage will vary.