All kids deserve everything
I'm feeling a little ranty because there's much "discussion," aka elitist pontificating, going on in my high school's alumni facebook group about the disparities in admissions and what should be done about it. And I am just so tired of the limited vision we insist on for the people who are most vulnerable in our society. Like Elon Musk can pursue Mars colonization, but black and brown kids from poor neighborhoods need to just know their place, there is nothing we can do about it?
If we have to be aspirational, why can't we aspire to a world that values every human equally? It is our refusal to do so that creates and maintains systems of inequality. There can be no rationalization that meritocracy is a just way of allocating the world's resources. And I'm not talking about communist utilitarianism. I don't mean that everyone should own or has the right to own the same things that everyone else does. I mean that everyone has the right to live to their fullest potential.
And this doesn't mean that we should be cramming all kids into prep courses and enrichment camps and making them sit in institutions for 8 hours a day so they can score well on a standardized test. The only thing that ever allows a child to rise to their potential is love. Radical love. Love that sees them and makes room for them as they are. Which is incredibly complicated and difficult. I have trouble doing this with my own biological children. But what is the alternative? To believe that some children don't deserve better than their circumstances, or worse, that they do, but we won't do anything to help because really that is not a real problem that affects us?
I have no patience for that. In an unjust world you have to choose to be just in every moment. Every kid deserves the kind of love I give my kids, and since I can't be everyone's mom, I will at least vote and advocate for policies that approximate that unconditional love.
If we have to be aspirational, why can't we aspire to a world that values every human equally? It is our refusal to do so that creates and maintains systems of inequality. There can be no rationalization that meritocracy is a just way of allocating the world's resources. And I'm not talking about communist utilitarianism. I don't mean that everyone should own or has the right to own the same things that everyone else does. I mean that everyone has the right to live to their fullest potential.
And this doesn't mean that we should be cramming all kids into prep courses and enrichment camps and making them sit in institutions for 8 hours a day so they can score well on a standardized test. The only thing that ever allows a child to rise to their potential is love. Radical love. Love that sees them and makes room for them as they are. Which is incredibly complicated and difficult. I have trouble doing this with my own biological children. But what is the alternative? To believe that some children don't deserve better than their circumstances, or worse, that they do, but we won't do anything to help because really that is not a real problem that affects us?
I have no patience for that. In an unjust world you have to choose to be just in every moment. Every kid deserves the kind of love I give my kids, and since I can't be everyone's mom, I will at least vote and advocate for policies that approximate that unconditional love.
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