This Morning 4/28/12 - Who's Who

Who's Who?

I've been inducted into the society of Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.  This is one of those moments when I'm contemplative about what it means to be a Who's Who-er - or, as I commented to a friend last night, a Who Who (recited quickly and melodically)!

At the induction banquet, which included awards for scholastic as well as sports achievements, the president of the college commented that the present grouping of about 250 students of a yearly enrollment of 10,000, represented the "elite," the creme de la creme, of the college.  If I would've been standing when he said that, I would have staggered.

Considering the socio-economic status of most of the people in that room, to call us "elite" was an interesting choice of verbiage.  A bunch of sports nuts and people who know how to apply themselves academically?  I'm not sure that has anything to do with being elite, a word usually reserved for the intelligentsia, the powerful, or the rich.

I understand the intent of his separating the 2% in that room from the 98% of the rest of students; it was to make us feel special and encourage the continuation of the momentum honored there in the room.  I do get that.  But all students are special if only for the fact that they are trying to help themselves.  Some do manage more effort in the process, but we who do that are not elite, we are just being ourselves.  We are no more and no less than another.

Each person has a story.  I landed in that room because I saw an opportunity to be acknowledged.  Some have no desire to be acknowledged.  There is nothing less elite about that than the ghost writer who does the work behind the scenes but is never known to the public.  There's nothing special about a 3.8 GPA.  You get bragging rights, but there is nothing special about it really.

For all the criticisms and tearing apart of the content, the president did say the right things that night.  He said what he should have said to the mostly 20 year-olds receiving their awards and honors.  For me, who is way beyond those years and that place of needing acknowledgment, the faux pas was simply that humility, respect for others, and equality of all students, regardless of their "status," was not mentioned.

It was a lost teaching moment to imbue not only self-esteem, but responsibility, because of the honor given; to give that honor to others - those less motivated perhaps, but less acknowledged certainly.