values

The Good-Person Trend? Am I a good person? That question made the rounds this week with this NYTimes piece by a Dartmouth admission's officer, who herself had been rejected from the school when she applied. The article focused on an otherwise-averagely-strong student who was accepted to Dartmouth largely on the strength of his recommendation letter. What set this letter apart, and got his unanimous YES vote by the admissions committee? It was written by the school custodian, praising the student's level of basic respect, friendliness, and awareness for all people--ALL People-- at the school, the custodian included. Wait, but-- Am I a good person? Well, if you have to ask... You could go all politician-semantics and say, "Depends on how you define good."  But you could also just look at yourself and what you do, take some notes, and evaluate. The writer warned that she expected a rash of applicants to follow the publication of the article with letters of support from their local garbage man, their school security guard, and so on.  She was fine with that, if that trend tipped the balance of behavior and values in favor of students generally being truly good. But the thing is, a truly good person is not good BECAUSE OF WHAT IT GETS YOU. A truly good person is just good JUST BECAUSE. A Good person is good material I'm lucky-- my husband is this type of person.  The other day, I was having a moan-y morning, feeling inadequate (hey, it happens sometimes), when he stopped me in my yowling tracks. You are good and loving, he said. What more do you want? Oh, gosh-- too bad I already applied to (and long finished) college! This would have been GREAT MATERIAL! No, you see, I am only kidding.  Not everything can be used. Because I doubt this featured student was thinking, "I know: I'll clean up classrooms for four years, greet the custodians in the hall every time...so I can look good on my college application!" Good people do stuff  Continue Reading …