How School Creates Learned Helplessness

And why this poisons our democracy

The word “meritocracy” was first used as satire to encourage “reflection upon the folly of a meritocratic life.” (I’m not making this up.)

Now, particularly in school, the “winners” view school as a pure merit system. Non-school influences are ignored, wealthy families cluster into better schools, and hiring managers preferentially select from this pool. This is carbon-monoxide for a democracy. Odorless. Colorless. Deadly.

But there is something more dangerous.

The Compliant Losers

The “losers” face two traps that are a public poison for our society.

The first is that many “losers” accept their place, believing they lost to a superior opponent. As rational beings, they eventually quit trying. These individuals become the newly minted “Learned Helpless.” A tragic consequence for a society that needs all hands on deck.

The Disagreeable Losers

But the others — a growing group — attribute their loss to a rigged game. These face a more sinister fate. These individuals fall into victimhood thinking and grow embittered. I can’t blame them. Having sat on 9 educational boards from Prek thru university, they are right; the game is rigged.

There is a reason that the most selective schools are overwhelmingly comprised of the wealthy class. The New York Times documented that many ‘elite’ schools have more students in the top 1% of family wealth than from the bottom 60%. Smells like a rigged game to me… a game where wealth wins.

When people feel that a game is rigged, they can easily be led astray by those who USE the embittered to further their personal ambitions.

And THAT, my friends, is a powder keg in a smoke shop.

The implications of our broken education system go well beyond equity in college and career opportunities. It goes to the very core of our democracy.