Word: ideal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...intensely scrutinized SAT. But the SAT is only a portion of "the big test" of Lemann's title. In his book, Lemann argues convincingly that the academic elitism of the American meritocracy, structured by its system of higher education, never lived up to its morally defensible Jeffersonian ideal of educating an intellectual few who would serve and advance the national community. Rather, the current system of selection for higher education based on the related criteria of academic performance, scholastic aptitude and IQ, has become a method of distributing society's pecuniary rewards to a select few without regard to future...
Lemann calls for more explicit discussion of what qualities should be included in "merit," and by extension, which qualities should be rewarded in an ideal meritocratic society. But in emphasizing the importance of creativity, determination and other non-academic personal qualities, he stumbles dangerously close to supporting a system in which advancement is determined primarily by subjective criteria. The danger is, of course, that the judgment of "character" could easily spawn more discrimination and favoritism than the judgment of "intelligence...
Especially troubling is his identification of "moral worth" as a quality which should be rewarded in an ideal meritocracy. While this opinion makes intuitive sense, its implementation as a criterion for selecting outstanding individuals would be much more discriminatory than the use of intelligence tests. For all of its inadequacies, the SAT does not attempt to test opinions. Any selection based on "morals," on the other hand, would reward those who agree with those in power about what is and is not "morally good." Suddenly, anyone who is pro-choice or pro-life, a fundamentalist or an atheist, could...
...support his ideal of a "true" American meritocracy, Lemann calls for a change to content-based college admissions exams. These tests would emphasize mastery of a nationally-established curriculum instead of "learning tricks to outwit multiple-choice aptitude exams." If he feels that this system would be less likely to discriminate against students in poorly run schools and less likely to be twisted by test preparation courses available to the rich, he is truly naive. The SATs are certainly not uncoachable, as ETS once claimed, but they are less dependent upon coaching than tests about subjects in history and chemistry...
...Ideal date: Maybe an evening with Mario Kart and some Milwaukee Beast. Or second best, go to the North End for dinner, get some dessert at a pastry shop, and then maybe see a movie...