Meritocracy

It took me a while to understand what the article on meritocracy was talking about. I still don't even know if I fully understand the meaning. I like the points of both Lord Young and Prince Charles.

Lord Young is responsible for bringing together children of all backgrounds and abilities under one roof to learn and be educated. He viewed meritocracy negatively because of the division in schools based upon children's ability. He felt poor children were being denied a fair education and since they were attending second-class schools, they would never be given the opportunity to further succeed in education.

Prince Charles, however, had a completely different view of meritocracy. He said that it is just as great an achievement to be a plumber or a bricklayer as it is to be a lawyer or a doctor. I very much agree with this statement. Not all people are meant to be doctors and lawyers and society will always need people working in those service-industry type fields. Withouth them, people would be without plumbing, without walls in their house, etc. I think the prince was trying to say that no matter what you become, if you succeed at a job that you enjoy doing, that deserves merit just as much as those people who practice law or medicine. One thing that comes to mind, though, is would Prince Charles accept one of his son's decisions to not attend college and work in a service providing industry? What would he say about meritocracy then?

One question brought forward in the article was the definiton of fairness in society. We all want to live in a society that is fair, but will there ever be an agreement on what fair is. I don't think so. With all the different economical and social classes in this world, there will always be the disagreement about fairness. The work force has become about who you know instead of what you know, and even though that isn't necessarily fair, it is sadly the reality of it all.