@Serious, a story that stuck with me from Gladwell's "Outliers".
Christopher Langan had one of the highest measured IQs in American history. He skipped multiple grades, got a perfect score on the SAT even while taking a nap partway through.. He taught himself advanced math, physics, philosophy, Latin, and Greek while in high school, spent most of his time in independent study cause he already knew everything in his classes. Didn't coast on his ability, literally studied all day every day because of his thirst for knowledge. Got a full ride to college. Got all A's for his first semester, but had trouble adjusting to college socially because he was from a poor rural family and grew up pretty isolated.
While he was going to university, his mother (who was poor as dirt) didn't send in the right financial info for the annual update on his financial aid package. His dad had already abandoned the family years earlier after a long pattern of abusive behavior. So Christopher lost his scholarship, solely due to his mother's paperwork lapse. He tried to go to the school counselor to get help, but they didn't help him. So he had to drop out of school before the year was over. Didn't even get credit for his second semester though he had already done most of the work and definitely would have aced the exams.
So he goes back home, and enrolls at the local state college, which is 13 miles from his house. He's working and going to school simultaneously, trying to make ends meet for his family. Halfway through the year, his car breaks down, and he doesn't have the money to repair it. He finds a neighbor who is willing to take him into town each day, but it's too late for his morning classes. So he asks his advisor if he can switch to the afternoon sections, due to this lack of transportation that makes it impossible to make the morning classes. His advisor denies it. He goes up to the dean. The dean looks at his transcript, sees he dropped out of his previous college, and tells him that he clearly hasn't learned his lesson and doesn't understand the sacrifices it takes if you want a college degree. Denies his appeal to transfer to afternoon classes. He is so upset that he's being forced basically to fail half his classes for the second time, through no fault of his own, and feels like the whole college is against him. Drops out of school and never goes back. Ends up working in manual labor for most of his life.
Literally one of the smartest people in the world, incredibly academically gifted, incredible work ethic, and
he never even finished two years of college due to circumstances that don't have jack shyt to do with how good a student he was.
I'm pretty disillusioned with the idea that American education is some sort of meritocracy. Yeah, it works out for a lot of kids. But who it works out for has a lot more to do with the position you're born into than the position you put yourself into. Of course there are exceptions, but those are the outliers, not the norm.
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