Wednesday, September 2, 2015

If that's a condition, I want nothing to do with it.

In a discussion the other day with one of the new teachers in the district, I mentioned that I was the NHS advisor, and that I was surprised that the dues for the school's joining for the year went from $85 to $385 per year. That got a strange look and a negative comment about the organization; I'm paraphrasing here: "I hate the NHS."

One raised eyebrow later, the teacher continued, "I was straight As, honor roll, did everything they expected of new members, the works. I and a couple of friends were rejected because our parents were divorced. Yep. The kids who were accepted all had married parents. Everyone rejected had divorced parents.  When we asked the advisor about it, he talked about the morality clause."

Unbelievable.

3 comments:

  1. I thought that was kind of bizarre, since I know honor society students from single-parent families. So I had to check it out. It appears the national standards are fairly minimal. The selection process, however, is done at the local level - which has to at the minimum apply the national criteria. The local chapters may add additional requirements, but those requirements must be published and made available to applicants upon request. Sounds like the case of a petty moral tyrant, if you ask me.

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  2. I thought that was kind of bizarre, since I know honor society students from single-parent families. So I had to check it out. It appears the national standards are fairly minimal. The selection process, however, is done at the local level - which has to at the minimum apply the national criteria. The local chapters may add additional requirements, but those requirements must be published and made available to applicants upon request. Sounds like the case of a petty moral tyrant, if you ask me.

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  3. Yeah, it seems to be that way, and judging from what I know of the town concerned, I'm not at all surprised. Unfortunately.

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