Why Merit Matters
We are failing our children, our communities, and our nation when we fail to model excellence in our lives.
“Be all that you can be.”
This was the recruiting slogan of the U.S. Army starting in 1981. That mantra was the rallying cry of print, radio, and TV commercials inviting young men and women to consider joining the ranks of the U.S. Army. It is a slogan that resonated across different generations because its idealistic message inspired visions of personal success until 2001, and now it’s back.
Men and women in the U.S. Army were required to push themselves, again and again, to become the very best version of themselves they could be. Although the Army has tested other slogans, among them “An Army of One” and “Army Strong”, neither connected with its audience and inspired a call to Greatness like “Be all that you can be.”
Perhaps this is one of the reasons the Army has rebooted this 1980s-era slogan to try and boost its sagging recruitment numbers by reminding young men and women that the pursuit of excellence still matters.
This slogan wasn’t about checking a box. It wasn’t about attracting people based on their race, color, creed, sex, religion, or national origin. It was about hiring those who wanted to become the best and giving them an opportunity to do so, regardless of these things.
It was a slogan based on the pursuit of individual excellence.
If you grew up in the South, as I did, attending church was a normal part of your weekly routine. You got up early, got yourself dressed up, and went first to Sunday School and then to the morning Church service. You returned in the evening for Sunday night service, receiving moral instruction with an emphasis on becoming the best version of yourself that you can become.
The Sunday School Movement began in Britain in the 1780s. The Industrial Revolution taking place forced many children into factories to work, depriving them of an opportunity to earn an education and limiting their opportunities in life. With children working six days a week, Sunday was the only day available to them for education.
By the mid-19th century, Sunday School attendance had spread to America and became an integral part of preparing children academically for success in life. Even parents who did not attend church wanted their children enrolled in Sunday School for the academic excellence it demanded, as well as the moral principles it taught and the character it helped to develop in children.
They saw an opportunity for children to get the education they did not and to have an opportunity to rise to their full potential. The Bible was a textbook used for learning to read, and copying passages from the Bible was often an exercise in learning how to write. The 6,000 years of recorded history in the 66 books of the Bible provided lessons in leadership, cooperation, teamwork, compassion, courtesy, respect, discipline, and more. The quality and quantity of learning amassed by children in these Sunday Schools fostered a generation of early scholars who, by today’s standards, would be considered “Gifted and Talented” students.
This early educational opportunity focused on academic excellence, modeling the slogan the Army adopted more than 200 years later. The Sunday School system was singularly focused on helping the students of working-class families become all they could become.
Interestingly, even after Britain and the United States adopted compulsory state education in the 1870s, many parents (even those who didn’t attend church) insisted their children attend Sunday School to receive the moral, character, and religious instruction that helped to mold and make them into better, well-behaved, and successful children.
Why?
Because the focus was on helping children become the best they could be. To teach them the value of hard work, an appreciation for a job well done, a willingness to do more than was expected or required, and to be rewarded for accomplishing these things.
Dedication, commitment, competency, and excellence were rewarded.
This was a time when MERIT mattered.
Then we ushered in the 1960s, and there began a movement away from morals-based instruction, teaching important character values, and instilling the importance of good self-leadership, national pride, love of country, and love of our fellow man.
And something in our culture began to change.
Rather than holding students accountable to a high standard and incentivizing them to strive for excellence, we started to grade on the curve. Now students didn’t have to study as hard, learn as much, or prepare as fully for an exam knowing that they would likely get a bump in their grade provided they were average, or slightly better.
Dedication, commitment, competency, and excellence were no longer rewarded.
This is why Merit matters.
Fast forward a few years, and we see “No Child Left Behind” implemented and now students are being promoted, many without even a basic competency of the subject matter at their current grade level. According to a September 26, 2023 article in Scientific America, biennial testing by the NAEP consistently shows that two-thirds of American children can’t read proficiently and forty percent of them are essentially nonreaders.
Another study by the U.S. Department of Education found that one in five high school graduates can’t read. The National Institute of Literacy reports 32 million Americans can’t read above a fifth-grade level.
This is what happens when dedication, commitment, competency, and excellence are no longer rewarded.
This is why Merit matters.
This is what happens when we start to make excuses as to why Johnny or Mary can’t read or can’t write. This is what happens when we keep children trapped in a failed education system that is no longer focusing on academic excellence and preparing students for success in life.
Rather than working harder to improve the outcomes for underprivileged students and those who are struggling academically, we lower the standards or remove the standards altogether. We see schools no longer recognizing Valedictorians, eliminating Honor Society from school, replacing the A-F Grading System with a Pass-Fail standard, or removing grading altogether.
I’ve heard Tony Robbins say many times over the years, “What gets rewarded gets repeated.”
When we reward average and mediocre, we get more of it. When we reward laziness and excuse-making, we get more laziness and a generation of excuse-makers. When we reward teachers with tenure so they can’t be held accountable for the outcomes of their students, we end up with a generation of students who can’t read, can’t write, and lack the leadership skills to effectively lead themselves…much less lead others.
Parents have bought into this. The Millennials were raised in a culture that refused to believe in winners and losers. Everyone got a participation medal or trophy just for showing up. You don’t keep score anymore. You don’t recognize star athletes. Success has been relegated to simply signing up, showing up, and putting forth little or no effort.
Dedication, commitment, competency, and excellence were no longer rewarded.
This is why Merit matters.
Today, we live in a culture of victimization. Everyone’s a victim, and often for some of the craziest, whimsical excuses you can imagine. Even worse, society is catering to victimhood. Everyone now has to have their “safe spaces”, so-called “micro-aggressions” abound, and if you disagree with anyone or dare to question their credentials, accomplishments, or point out their mistakes, flaws, or shortcomings, you’re racist.
Today, we are focused on Equity rather than Equality. Equality says everyone has the same opportunity to learn, grow, improve, and rise to their full potential. But equality puts the responsibility of the outcome on the person. You have to choose to do the hard work, put in the hours, become a subject matter expert, and earn your Black Belt in your chosen Art, profession, or trade.
Equity simply says that we take from those who have, give to those who have not, and now everyone is equal. This removes the responsibility from the individual and puts it in the hands of an institution, such as the Government. You no longer have to put in the hard work, do the work, become a subject matter expert, and strive to “Be the best that you can be.” History is full of examples of Socialist and Marxist regimes where this has been tried and failed. Because when everyone is equal, everyone is lacking, and no one ever has enough.
Businesses today have catered to this societal aberration and are now hiring based on diversity, equity, and inclusion quotas. While there is nothing wrong, and a lot of things right, with a diverse workforce, hiring people based predominantly on their skin color, race, or sex without regard to their underlying qualifications isn’t going to get the best people hired.
When you don’t hire the best people, you don’t get the best outcomes.
You end up settling for less.
This is NOT a recipe for success.
MLK’s dream of a “color-blind” America where people are judged not by the color of their skin (or some other external quality) but by the content of their character, has been replaced by an emphasis on what divides us rather than unites us.
Today, we hire to check a box rather than hire the best.
Dedication, commitment, competency, and excellence are no longer rewarded.
This is why Merit Matters.
Why not let everyone compete, and the most qualified person wins?
In life, there are winners and losers. Get over it.
Not everyone is great at everything. Find what you’re good at and work hard to become the best at this, whatever it is. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. This is life.
For America to continue to be the greatest nation on the earth, we need a populace of people who are committed to becoming the greatest version of themselves. We need people who are dedicated, committed, competent, hard-working, diligent, and committed to excellence. We need people who value themselves and value others, people who want the best for themselves and the best for others.
You can’t have a great nation when you only have average, mediocre people.
This is why Merit matters.