Random musings about education - girls, science, and opportunities

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From my personal experience (n=1):

I used to believe things were mostly merit-based. We are all equal, we are fair, we are respectful, etc.... all that idealistic fantasy.

But now I have come to realize that outside factors also play a HUGE influence too, and people can start off, right from the beginning, on very unequal footing. These outside factors contribute to "merit" and "achievement". This is something I feel schools and the academic world do not openly address enough.

Governments have been pouring money into funding education to make it more accessible, but it's not just about the money. It's also about soft skills and unspoken codes of conduct - cultural items - that are taught more in some families/environments. Like how to be a "good student". I'm pretty sure I turned out to be a good student because my parents followed me early on and made sure I did the proper student-y things.

Volunteering overseas (e.g. Africa, which is really hot right now) looks impressive on an application - but this opportunity in reality is limited to a certain student. One who can afford the program fees and plane ticket to participate, AND who can afford to give up a summer's earnings.

I don't know really what I'm trying to say, but this ARTICLE made me feel sad. Universities are loaded with girls, even in the sciences and maths, so this article about girls sweeping the top prizes at a big science competition was not that interesting to me.

However, this one paragraph made me think that although what these students did took a lot of work and innovation, they were certainly given ample opportunity to succeed and there is probably some boy/girl out there who could really benefit AND excel from such opportunities too.

Three-quarters of the finalists have a parent who is a scientist. The parents of Alicia Darnell, who won second place, are medical researchers at Rockefeller University, and her maternal grandparents were scientists, too. Isha Himani Jain, who took home the top individual prize, published her first research paper with her father, a professor at Lehigh University, when she was 10 or 11; her mother is a doctor.

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I guess it is kind of sad that the finalists have scientists as parents..but does that mean that the other people aren't working hard enough? I'm sure the finalists have a chance at winning because their parents have taught/influenced them to succeed in a certain area. It is unfortunate for those students who don't have a scientist for a parent, but that should influence them to work harder to achieve the goal. We can't just deny these finalists what they deserve just because their parents are smart and who have a degree in a certain area, because chances are that they probably deserve it. I'm not saying that the others don't deserve it, but perhaps they need to step up a little and try to make a name for themselves without the help of their parents.

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I guess it is kind of sad that the finalists have scientists as parents..but does that mean that the other people aren't working hard enough?

I think the point that the op is trying to make is that some of these accomplishments simply would not be possible unless you had a scientist as a parent. For example, how many 10 year olds do you know who have had work published in a scientific journal? This has nothing to do with having parents who taught you good study habits. It's more about having a parent who was having something published and simply listed you as a co-author. The fact remains that people from non-scientific families will just have to work much harder to achieve the same things. Is it fair? Of course not, but how many things in life are?

To the OP: There are tons of people out there who accomplish amazing things in spite of their less stellar family histories. And of course it would be nice if everyone had the same opportunities, but I just don't think that's possible.