3 ms·

The opening paragraphs seem to imply that the awards were withheld based on race. When you get into the meat of the article, though, it makes it more clear tha

The opening paragraphs seem to imply that the awards were withheld based on race. When you get into the meat of the article, though, it makes it more clear that the school just forwarded a paper cert to the kids, and didn’t make a big deal about it. And parents are complaining because the school didn’t make a big deal out of it or get it to students “fast enough” to apply for some early admission stuff. It’s been a while, but I remember most of those “National Merit” type things to be not very important or relevant. It’s just based on your PSAT score.

havetocharge 4y ago
Maybe there's a meatier part still, where the author alleges that they have yet to receive a certificate earned two years ago.
- johnnyo 4y ago
  As a parent, the chances a piece of paper given to a kid in homeroom makes it to the parent are probably 50% at best. Probably lower. I know when I was a student, it was probably below 25%
  - havetocharge 4y ago
    This is a possible outcome. However, another possibility is that not all children are of the same aptitude, and therefore your experience might not be representative of their.
    - johnnyo 4y ago
      I was a National Merit scholar, FWIW. It’s not really a “prestigious award”. According to the article, 240 kids at the school got the same thing. At my large high school, lots of kids got it too.
      - ummonk 4y ago
        It's an award that can get you a full ride or even a stipend at many state colleges. Prestigious or not, it's a very important award.
lambdasquirrel 4y ago
If that’s what’s going on then it’s a little overblown, IMO. I went to Stuy and I think they just posted the list of National Merit Scholarships on a bulletin board somewhere, and yeah we all gawked to see who got it, but then it was just back to the grind. It’s not like it was some ace-in-hole that could make or break your admission.
- johnnyo 4y ago
  Yeah, if you drill down into the actual sources, that appears to be what happened. The school got a stack of certificates. They sat on the principals desk for a while, then they sat with the guidance counselor or homeroom teachers before being passed out. The parent is basically complaining because: 1. They didn’t notify the parents via email. 2. They didn’t find out in time to put in on an college early admission application. 3. The school didn’t make a big deal of handing out the awards in an assembly or similar. This sounds more like a complaint from an overbearing helicopter parent than any sort of issue that HN would care about.
  - matthewdgreen 4y ago
    >1. They didn’t notify the parents via email. "One former student said he learned he had won the award through a random email from the school to a school-district email account that students rarely check; the principal neither told his parents nor made a public announcement."
    - johnnyo 4y ago
      Yup, their complaint is that they wanted a separate email to *parents*. Its kind of ridiculously petty when you see what the actual complaint is here. I have a lot of sympathy for school administrators and school board members. They deal with this sort of stuff from parents all the time.
BryantD 4y ago
Yeah, this is internally self-contradictory. I quote: But homeroom teachers didn’t distribute the awards until Monday, November 14, after the early-application deadlines had passed. Teachers dropped the certificates unceremoniously on students’ desks. “Keeping these certificates from students is theft by the state,” says Yashar. ... so they did get distributed, albeit without much ceremony. Also, that's in plenty of time for scholarship applications, so "Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors" is a bit of a non-sequitur.
positr0n 4y ago
> It’s been a while, but I remember most of those “National Merit” type things to be not very important or relevant. That's what I thought when I was a kid, but it turns out that the important college ranking system uses "number of national merit finalists" as a high weighted metric. I got a full ride to a respected state university solely from that PSAT test and so did two of my friends.

havetocharge 4y ago

Maybe there's a meatier part still, where the author alleges that they have yet to receive a certificate earned two years ago.

johnnyo 4y ago
As a parent, the chances a piece of paper given to a kid in homeroom makes it to the parent are probably 50% at best. Probably lower. I know when I was a student, it was probably below 25%
- havetocharge 4y ago
  This is a possible outcome. However, another possibility is that not all children are of the same aptitude, and therefore your experience might not be representative of their.
  - johnnyo 4y ago
    I was a National Merit scholar, FWIW. It’s not really a “prestigious award”. According to the article, 240 kids at the school got the same thing. At my large high school, lots of kids got it too.
    - ummonk 4y ago
      It's an award that can get you a full ride or even a stipend at many state colleges. Prestigious or not, it's a very important award.

lambdasquirrel 4y ago

If that’s what’s going on then it’s a little overblown, IMO. I went to Stuy and I think they just posted the list of National Merit Scholarships on a bulletin board somewhere, and yeah we all gawked to see who got it, but then it was just back to the grind. It’s not like it was some ace-in-hole that could make or break your admission.

johnnyo 4y ago
Yeah, if you drill down into the actual sources, that appears to be what happened. The school got a stack of certificates. They sat on the principals desk for a while, then they sat with the guidance counselor or homeroom teachers before being passed out. The parent is basically complaining because: 1. They didn’t notify the parents via email. 2. They didn’t find out in time to put in on an college early admission application. 3. The school didn’t make a big deal of handing out the awards in an assembly or similar. This sounds more like a complaint from an overbearing helicopter parent than any sort of issue that HN would care about.
- matthewdgreen 4y ago
  >1. They didn’t notify the parents via email. "One former student said he learned he had won the award through a random email from the school to a school-district email account that students rarely check; the principal neither told his parents nor made a public announcement."
  - johnnyo 4y ago
    Yup, their complaint is that they wanted a separate email to *parents*. Its kind of ridiculously petty when you see what the actual complaint is here. I have a lot of sympathy for school administrators and school board members. They deal with this sort of stuff from parents all the time.

BryantD 4y ago

Yeah, this is internally self-contradictory. I quote: But homeroom teachers didn’t distribute the awards until Monday, November 14, after the early-application deadlines had passed. Teachers dropped the certificates unceremoniously on students’ desks. “Keeping these certificates from students is theft by the state,” says Yashar. ... so they did get distributed, albeit without much ceremony. Also, that's in plenty of time for scholarship applications, so "Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors" is a bit of a non-sequitur.

positr0n 4y ago

> It’s been a while, but I remember most of those “National Merit” type things to be not very important or relevant. That's what I thought when I was a kid, but it turns out that the important college ranking system uses "number of national merit finalists" as a high weighted metric. I got a full ride to a respected state university solely from that PSAT test and so did two of my friends.