How Soon is too Late?

This was taken from David Callahan’s book, The Cheating Culture.

“Consultants are paid huge sums of money to coach and tutor preschoolers, including rigorously prepping to help children impress interviewers at prestigious preschools with their ability to make eye contact and play nicely with others.”

Callahan is explaining just how far well-to-do parents will go to see that their children have the best start so that they are inoculated against an insecure financial world.

He tells the story of Jack Grubman, a Wall Street telecom analyst who allegedly upgraded AT&T stock in an effort to get Citigroup chairman Sanford Weill to help Grubman’s twins to gain admitance to the 92nd Street Y preschool, one of the most elite preschools in New York City.

After reading this a couple questions came to mind.

First, just how far have we gone down the road where nothing, but nothing, is beyond the pale when it comes to achieving the entrance into the “winning-class?”

The other question is, how does a middle or lower class child compete when the playing field is so tipped in favor of those who are already in the “winning-class?”

For some reason, I can't stop laughing.

...by people with ethics in the long run. Often even in the short.

The trouble with people who are willing to do anything to get ahead, is that "anything" tends to mean screwing someone over. In order to screw someone over, you have to have a built-in mechanism for being dishonest to other people, and not getting bogged down with guilt.

The problem with that is that in order to successfully alleviate the guilt, the argument has to be "everyone else is being untrustworthy too". So the untrustworthy person, trusts no one. Imagine having to go through life thinking everyone you ever encounter is lying to put one over on you.

If nothing else, outlive 'em. Then dance on their unvisited grave. :thumbsup:

My half sister went to a college prep preschool too, which we felt was very silly. My sister and I went to preschools where we bascially learned to play, color in the lines, cut on lines, and lean children's songs. Our parents taught us how to read and do simple math before we went to kindergarten, which put us ahead of the game academically.
For lower and middle class children to do as well or better than their rich counterparts, parents teaching children outside the curriculm and encouraging a general love of learning is what is necessary. Later on, a senior in a poor public school and a seventh grader in an elite private prep school might be assigned to read the same books, but it does not mean that the poorer student needs to wait until they are assigned the books to read them. Learning outside the curriculm, geared to average and below students, is the answer to success.

And my favored bedtime reading beginning at about age 8 was the World Book Encyclopedia (true story).

I have read articles about some of this kind of behavior in the New York Times, even stories about parents cutthroat competing against one another to make sure their precious offspring beats out some other kid for one of the precious spaces in these elite preschools. How far will people go? Remember the story about the mother in Texas or Florida with the cheerleader daughter? Or the hockey player's father in Massachusetts?

As to your second question, I point to the two individuals who will be nominated by their respective parties for President this year.