Never Assume

A remarkable story appeared in the Chicago Tribune last Sunday. It's about a remarkable young man named Derrius Quarles and his determination to get somewhere and be somebody. A foster child whose father was stabbed to death when Derrius was four and whose mother struggled with drugs, he had the strength of character to overcome the vagaries of his life and end up winning scholarships to excellent colleges all over the country, including Morehouse, where he now attends.
Derrius's outlook can be summed up here: "You can't go around thinking you are inferior just because you didn't have parents," he says. "For me, it's about knowing where you are from and accepting it, but more important, knowing where you are going." 
At 17, he was living on his own, keeping himself together and focusing on the future. He budgeted his money and when he did the grocery shopping he avoided junk food in favor of fruits and vegetables. He never took his eyes off his goal.
Derrius was fortunate to have someone see his potential. As often happens and as studies have shown, sometimes just one person can have an immense effect on a young person. For Derrius, that person was his summer biology teacher, Nivedita Nutakki, who told him he shouldn't waste his talent. Arriving as a freshman with a 2.5 GPA at Kenwood Academy, Derrius was taking three AP classes and earning a 3.6 by his junior year. 
In the middle of this amazing story is a passage that made me angry: "Even his oversize ambition couldn't get Quarles past one roadblock. He dreamed of attending Harvard, until one college adviser told him his 28 ACT score was simply not high enough. He abandoned his plans."
Regardless of whether Harvard or Morehouse (or any other institution) would be the best for him, no college adviser should have told him not to bother applying to Harvard or anywhere else. It is not for that person to say. I always tell students that it is their right and privilege to apply wherever they want so long as they understand clearly what the odds are. In this case, it's a shame that someone assumed Derrius wouldn't get into Harvard on the basis of that score. And it's almost criminal that Derrius was convinced to abandon his plans as a result. Any college adviser who thinks he or she can or should make that determination suffers from a bad case of hubris.
The truth is, we cannot know what the future holds for our advisees. We don't know what colleges and universities will decide, even though we can come up with some pretty accurate guesses if we've had enough experience. We don't know how or when a student will suddenly "take off" and make us proud. But all you have to do is read Derrius's story to know that no matter where he went he'd make good, and that as a result the test scores say very little about him (and even so, they are miles above the average scores of someone from his background). 
Again, I'm not saying Derrius should have gone to Harvard or anywhere else or that he's deprived as a result--clearly not. But no one should have told him it wasn't possible. Anything is possible, as this young man has already shown. While we may think we know a lot, the future always confounds us and we should always be humble in its presence. 


Edit, Oct. 23: I was so taken with the story that I forgot I had met Derrius through Scholarship Chicago, a program that provides help and mentorship throughout the college process and in college as well as financial assistance during college. When I met him he had already received several admission offers from colleges and was racking up scholarships. I would never have guessed at the hurdles he was going through he was so poised, confident, and focused. 

Kick in the Pants

I've just read some responses on the NACAC listserv to a question about how to motivate unmotivated kids (mostly boys) to do well in high school so they can go to college. Many of the responses were about the economics of a college degree (over a lifetime the college grad earns a lot more), the terror of working at McDonald's, having some self-respect, and so on. People suggested that students get therapy for their sluggishness or that counselors read students the riot act, so to speak, let them know what's good for them. I found it all depressing although I can't say I haven't felt the same way in dealing with some of my own students in the past.

But here's the thing: Not a single response (of the ones given) said anything about the possibility that these unmotivated students see no meaning in their lives or in going to college, so why should they be motivated? While it's fine to focus on the pragmatics of going to college or even getting a job, most people, at some level, are also hungry for their lives to be worth something, even if they may not recognize it. Perhaps these kids have been marched through a school system that spends more time testing them and preparing to test them than in presenting them with ideas and asking them to have thoughts. Perhaps they have become numbed by shallow textbooks or uncreative lessons, or been warehoused in classes of 32 students and have figured out that the only way to survive is to hunker down and do only what's needed to get by. Yelling at them to shape up isn't going to do it.

And forget about the economic argument, at least for now. Surely even the most willfully ignorant student knows that the economy is in the tank and that college costs more than ever. At least one parent is probably out of a job or about to be---who are we kidding? Trying to get out of college with a reasonable amount of debt is a job in itself, so don't expect the idea of an eventual six-figure income somewhere, sometime in the distant future to mean much, especially to kids who are used to immediate gratification. (Not, at least this time, a criticism, just a fact.) The ant doesn't beat the grasshopper here, and why should it given the headlines and the breadlines?

Forgotten, are the more esoteric, but primary reasons for going to college. It might be nice to hear someone say that going to college exposes you to ideas and situations that can rattle your cage and make you think about and connect you to something larger than yourself, or that reading great things and talking about them with great teachers and students can set your brain abuzz with thoughts that could help you change yourself and change your neighborhood or city or who knows what. It would be inspiring to hear that going to college can inspire you, even when you think there's not much to be inspired by. That reading The Culture of Narcissism or Sister Carrie or dissecting a mouse can literally change the way you think. Really, it can and does happen.

Are we reduced to seeing college only as an economic "value added" proposition or as an alternative to something worse? Is the idea of college as a place for thought and experimentation only for those who can afford the luxury of thought untethered to the need to make a living? Surely even in the most career-oriented education there has to be a little room for some independent thinking; it's what makes having a brain worthwhile. Perhaps if we reached these unmotivated kids sooner with something that sparks their interest, we might do better by them. Studies have shown (and I've seen it in my own experience) that just a few supportive words from a genuinely interested adult can make an immense difference to a kid. Being noticed, realizing that you mean something to someone, can tip the scales toward accomplishment. Whether it's giving kids something real to think on or noticing what they already have that is worth developing, perhaps we need to motivate more by treating kids as prospective thinkers instead of prospective drones.

If our new stock in trade is mental not metal (and I don't mean just information but knowledge), then we should be trying to stir up our kids' synapses with stuff to make them think. Perhaps then they might feel motivated enough to get where they could do a lot of it.