News

At some point, our students receive a cultural message that is as intoxicating as it is dangerous: You are here because you earned it. The grades, the accolades, the college admissions, the test scores—these appear to certify not only achievement but worth. In a meritocratic society, success is taken as proof of virtue.

I had the privilege to join a webinar hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education last week. Michael Sandel, an American political philosopher and professor of Government at Harvard University, was the keynote speaker. In his book, The Tyranny of Merit, Sandel asks us to pause to consider a disarming question: What is merit? His answer unsettles the moral logic of modern schooling. Talent is not self-created. The family we are born into, the teachers who notice us, the stability of our communities, and the very structure of our minds are matters of luck and environment. Even the capacity to work hard is, in part, a gift.

For a school devoted to gifted learners, this insight is not a threat to excellence. It is a call to redefine it.