A column in The Washington Post took a different angle about the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I want to live in a world where a Supreme Court nominee, or anyone else making history, will not be able to tell the story, as Jackson did, about the high school guidance counselor who urged her to lower her sights when she aspired to attend Harvard,” wrote Michele Norris. “My Post colleague Jonathan Capehart took to Twitter and asked, ‘Raise your hand if you had *that* guidance counselor?’
“The response was revealing and heartbreaking: Dozens upon dozens of lawyers, journalists, professors, CPAs, nurses and a chemical physicist all reported that they had *that* guidance counselor.”
This may come across as unfair to high school guidance counselors. Each one works with hundreds of students each year, many of whom have no idea what they want to do once they receive their diploma.
One of a counselor’s duties is to be honest with students. While Jackson’s guidance counselor clearly missed a rising star, the flip side of the equation is that only a couple of thousand of high school graduates across the country get accepted to Harvard each year. And only a few lawyers ever get confirmed as a federal judge, as Jackson has been twice. Even fewer are nominated to the Supreme Court. Jackson, if confirmed, would be even more unique as the first Black woman in the court’s history.
The column didn’t specify how many people responding to the Twitter question were minorities. Nor did it say how many of the guidance counselors were white. But the implication is clear that guidance counselors discouraged a number of today’s successful Black professionals, who must have shown potential in high school, from pursuing their aspirations.
There’s an obvious solution to this. It’s probably already in use today. The idea comes from professional athletes, many of whom came from families of modest means. More than one remembered that when he talked of being paid to play a game, some adult in high school told him to get serious and focus on a real job.
Again, very few high school athletes rise all the way to professional sports. But one who did recalled meeting a teacher several years after high school who thanked the player for showing him the error of his advice all those years ago.
Now, the teacher said, when a kid tells him of his long shot dream, he urges the student to go for it — but also to recognize the difficulty of his quest and to have a good backup plan.
It’s pretty simple to extend this to kids who dream of working in high-paying professions or attending one of the country’s most exclusive universities. They should go for it — while understanding the value of a backup plan.
“I worry about all the kids who sadly succumb to low expectations or who don’t have champions to nurture their ambitions,” Norris added. So, I have a slight twist on Jonathan’s query. I’d ask: “Are you now *that* guidance counselor, unable to see the potential that resides inside brown skin, or in some kid who doesn’t have the right zip code, name or gender?”
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
