The Race to the Bottom

Moon Rising over Colorado River - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

Earlier this week I was twisting the radio dial while driving to work, and a voice from a local National Public Radio station stopped me. Maybe it was the tone or the clear, carefully parsed phrases, but Cedric, the speaker, was making a lot of sense. I never heard his last name or title, but he was a black man who was discussing the importance family in determining children’s achievement and the over emphasis of athletics on minority youths. The other panel members, including the well respected Superintendent of Schools, politely agreed, but another member chimed in and extolled the benefits of mentoring programs while a fellow participant felt academic rigor must be tempered with cultural sensitivity. No, Cedric interjected; the importance of the family far outweighs the contribution of mentors, and academic content must be challenging and not diluted to the point that it builds self esteem and ego but little else.

Not to be confrontational, the panelists agreed with this last point but went on to say that school discipline and expulsion criteria were directed unfairly at minorities. The superintendent added in his long career he expelled only one student, and this incident was his fault since he did not take the time to understand his student. Few question the decency and well meaning of the superintendent, but as someone who was kicked out of many classes in high school, I confess it was never my teachers’ fault. I was disruptive and thought myself unusually clever, and no amount of understanding on the part of my teachers could rectify my smart ass attitude.

I met Joe Sullivan in 1968 as fellow freshmen at the Air Force Academy. He was a two sport intercollegiate athlete, and one of the few cadets other than myself who didn’t have a beard worth shaving until age twenty-one. It was only recently I learned something of Joe’s up bringing, which testifies to the extraordinary potential of committed parents.

Joe was born near Boston (where else with a name like Joseph Sullivan?) and raised in Southern California under financially strapped circumstances. One of six children, his family owned but one car until Joe entered the 8th grade. His father, a salesman, spent two weeks of every month out of town on business. Without private transportation until the acquisition of a second car and caring for her family on a tight budget, Joe’s mother engaged in a constant battle to keep her children fed, clothed, and in school. Siblings from large families who are exposed to disruptive elements at school and in the neighborhood are at risk for trouble with the law, but Joe’s father was the law and a strong disincentive to misbehavior. When it was time for high school, Joe told his father he would like to attend a parochial school. His father agreed provided Joe paid half of the tuition, so Joe worked a paper route to uphold his side of the bargain. Joe is now a successful businessman, two brothers airline pilots, and his sister a flight attendant. Without a strong family unit the Sullivan children easily could have become another statistic.

In the continuing culture wars the Left has put meritocracy in the crosshairs and questioned its standing in society. Of all the issues surrounding social engineering none confound progressives more than the inability to eradicate poverty and guarantee individual success. Billions of dollars and decades of effort have failed to produce the promised results. Since the advent of Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 1960s, chronic poverty and poor academic standards with attendant high crime rate and drug use persist. At some point one would think it is time to concede defeat and look for another solution. Children’s achievement is strongly correlated with a functioning family unit, but rather than emulate this model and eat crow, a campaign is underway to deprive families of their inherent advantages.

To the Left, competition with its winners and losers, is the root of the problem. We are led to believe high functioning children are the product of only privileged rearing where money alone insures results. Parental effort and sacrifice conveniently are omitted in the equation, but no amount of opining and pontificating will obscure the truth: irrespective of background, committed parents make extraordinary sacrifices to aid their children. Setting high goals and expecting commensurate results, are the best ways to prepare for the future.


The Left lampoons the two parent family as passé and cannot admit social programs have spawned a proliferation of single parents who do a poor job raising children. Rather than admit defeat, the Left resorts to a traditional tactic: change the rules to level the field. Victory cannot be complete until objective standards are replaced by subjective ones based on whim.

California leads the way in defying common sense in the quest to make a perfect world, a world free of competition where everyone conveniently fits into the same mold. Training registered nurses at the junior college level is a classic example. Nursing is no longer just emptying bed pans and starting IV’s but a technical profession of computers, sophisticated instruments, complicated medications, and life saving judgments. Although the nursing shortage has eased, competition for admission to nursing programs remains intense. To be admitted to a university sponsored training program, grades and extra curricular activities are considered, but in California community colleges where an RN degree can be earned in two rather than four years, performance and aptitude are not so important. No distinction is made between a student with and “A” or a “C” average. Admission is determined by lottery. Nurses are arguably the most important piece of the health care system, yet in the community college system a 55 year old nearing retirement age with average grades is just as likely to be admitted as a 25 year old with a 40 year employment horizon and a 4.0 GPA.

The NPR radio panel members epitomize the sincere but misguided mindset of the Left. Patronizing and only pretending to listen, in their view social programs and educational gimmicks trump Cedric’s old fashioned faith on mom, dad, and homework. They have mastered the jargon and need just one more chance to concoct a system that functions better than a family. While wasting time, money, and energy, they are “helping” us all win the race to the bottom.