Blame parents, not SATs, for inequities

Yes, Virginia, the colleges do prefer knowledgeable students who are already fluent in trigonometry and calculus, who have a reasonably rich lexicon and who can convey their thoughts in the form of an essay. Otherwise, the students will have to spend two out of four college years taking remedial classes. Our society does not need engineers who study engineering subjects proper for only the two remaining years.

The same applies to any field of endeavor: baseball, skating, saxophone playing or journalism. A baseball coach might feel sorry for an unskillful candidate who just has not had a chance to play the game with his parents. But usually a coach simply cannot afford to take such candidates in the hope that they might catch up later.

Whether you like it or not, we live in a competitive society that encourages excellence. That's why we have a football Hall of Fame, Nobel Prizes and Oscars. Do some kids have an unfair advantage over others because their parents are able and willing to tutor them or hire professional tutors? You bet they do, and the difference is obvious by the age of 5. The parents who read books to their kids, who teach them to count, who engage them in intelligent conversations create this "unfair" advantage. Have you thought about directing your rants toward your parents rather than colleges?

What is the alternative? The alternative is a drab, uniform, conformist society, which exists in some totalitarian countries. Such societies do not invent the telephone and do not discover penicillin. Would you rather live there?

Eugene Veklerov is a semi-retired scientist who has worked at the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for more than 30 years. He has three children, and he was their SAT tutor. And he lived half of his life in a totalitarian country.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/08/INMA1AEQHI.DTL&type=education#ixzz0WS0iuzVe