This editorial is exactly why I defend Ayn Rand. The entire editorial is based on the premise that altruism is worthless unless it is for the “right reason.” Students volunteering because they think it will help them gain admission to the school of their choice is bad. Why? Because they are seeking a reward for their efforts (never mind that there is no guarantee of such a reward and any student that is packing their college resume should be savvy enough to know that such a reward is not guaranteed). Why is hoping to be rewarded for their work bad? Because it “[leaches] their innate humanity”
The author rails against “our increasingly competitive society and the commercialization of the college culture that perpetrates the harmful myth that only a few of the college "brands" are "the best." Sighting this as the reason why students are not volunteering for the “right” reason. To want something beyond a warm fuzzy feeling from volunteer work is wrong. Ms. Seal’s only explanation for why this is wrong seems to be the assumption that individuals who expect to be rewarded for work are bad people. She never clearly explains (at least to my misanthropic mind) why she believes that wanting to be indirectly rewarded for “good deeds” is bad. It is assumed that any reader will understand that students who volunteer because they hope it will help them get into the school of their choice are morally bankrupt and this behavior should be stopped. It is never posited that those students who engage in application padding are doing any kind of disservice to those they are working with. At no time does she suggest that the elderly people visited by those students who are volunteering because they think it looks good on a resume are 18% more lonely than those visited by an impassioned volunteer. Instead she points to a study that shows that people being directly rewarded for performing a pleasurable task are less likely to continue the task for an extended period of time*. The relationship between this study and her point is a stretch at best. So once again we are back to the concept that volunteering for the “wrong” reason is bad because it is wrong.
O.K. I am going to recap because I want to be clear in my own mind. Ms. Seal is arguing that students are volunteering for the “wrong” reasons. Why? Because the “right” reasons are undervalued by society. Helping others should be its own reward and hoping to be rewarded in any other way is wrong. I am sorry but I am confused as to why the only “good” good works must be done without hope for greater reward? I don’t understand why a motivation (I say “a motivation” because no matter how good it looks on a college application no one I have ever known has ever volunteered for work they abhor doing. Students who hate the elderly do not volunteer at nursing homes, they find other volunteer opportunities.) invalidates the good work.
The capper to all of this stupid blather is that Ms. Seal, who has spent 2/3 of the article decrying the idea that college applications are at all a factor in when/if/how students volunteer wraps up her argument by saying “Admissions committees can tell the difference between a student who pursues activities to "look good" and one who is truly interested, curious and otherwise self-motivated, says Bruce Poch, vice president and dean of admissions at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. A kind of Botox-freeze glazes the faces of the "packaged" kid, he explains, but the engaged student radiates excitement and connection to the greater world around her. When kids aren't gaming the system, their personal statements will match the picture painted by counselors and teachers.
"Go find something you want to do," Poch advises high school students. "Find what you like, and then you can tell me about that." If kids try community service and like it, they should follow their inner passion. That's the kind of student, says Poch, that college professors want to teach.” Essentially she ends by saying that application padding doesn’t work anyway and students should not volunteer unless they are passionate about volunteer work because it doesn’t help their college applications. Perhaps I am just a befuddled person but for me this negates all earlier statements about not letting college applications factor into the decision to volunteer. She moans that “Among many middle-class families, this college admissions pressure is creating a bizarre outlook that harms our children.” Only to end with the assertion that the behavior she is complaining about is useless and will not help in the all important college admissions process.
Finally to try to tie this all back around to my initial statement “This is why I defend Ayn Rand.” As I read this editorial I couldn’t stop thinking about the villains of Atlas Shrugged, most specifically James Taggart who is constantly reviling his sister for not helping people for the “right” reasons. She only helps, works, does anything because she hopes for either direct or indirect greater reward for her assistance.
*BTW anyone who can find me the info on this study that shows how it was determined that the puzzles in question were pleasurable and how they got around the issue that the puzzles are a Spatial Relationship problem while the other option was reading, which involve very different parts of the brain and how the percentage of individuals who enjoy Spatial Relationship problems vs. reading was figured in and how they allowed for the difference in the study blah blah blah… gets a free sticker!
