In the United States, where people say that the environment is open, opportunities are abundant, and enthusiasm and talent are more important than academic qualifications, scandals of celebrities bribing and cheating to get their children into prestigious schools have emerged. What are these parents thinking? Why do children have to go to famous schools? What value crises have emerged in American society?

"Rich parents were sued for cheating in college entrance! It is rare for The Wall Street Journal to make headlines with social and educational news, and it also has several special reports. Because most of the people involved are CEOs and executives of multinational companies, partners of private equity funds, Hollywood stars and even well-known lawyers who usually appear in this newspaper in a glamorous manner. It is not difficult to imagine the impact and symbolic significance of this collective fraud case on American society.

In the first wave of the list of 5 people charged, 33 parents spent at least $25 million to bribe examiners, school examiners, coaches, forge documents, find examination gunmen, and let their children enter Yale, Stanford, Southern University and other prestigious schools. In the United States, where it is rumored in Asia that academic qualifications are not valued, I am naturally useful, and enthusiasm and talent are more important, how much pressure is there to go to school?

"Every year, I see children having a cold war with their parents, or parents and children quarreling in front of me, because parents want their children to go to famous schools, and the family pressure is so great that it will explode," an American public high school counselor told parents at the school's entrance discussion. It is clear that children have to apply for universities in the 12th grade, but as soon as the 1th grade starts, parents frequently ask about the university entrance. Experienced schools have called all parents to explain since the tenth grade, and there are group discussions, so that every student and parent can have a special person to help them get into school early.

They should not only go to college, but also try their best to squeeze into famous schools. Why? (See more > > Taking an active part in learning is more conducive to a child's successful life than superstitious belief in prestigious schools.)

According to The Wall Street Journal, this incident reflects the unspeakable anxiety of contemporary parents facing the pressure of globalization and competition.

First of all, prestigious schools still have important symbolic significance, and the aura of academic qualifications will accompany them for life.

Especially when all trades and professions are changing rapidly, in the United States, famous schools are at least a relatively useful guarantee, so that children can have better opportunities and income as soon as they leave society.

In addition, most students in famous schools are famous for their cleverness, and their teachers and research are among the best. It's like putting a label on graduates to tell everyone that they have not only received good and advanced training, but also know how to learn and adapt quickly in uncertain times. (See more > > American students take "smart medicine" to enter famous schools to take shortcuts? )

Recently, tuition fees in the United States have risen dramatically, and prestigious schools seem to be another guarantee of "return on investment". In order to pay for tuition, many American college students take on hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans as soon as they graduate. According to the statistics of PayScale, if you invest in Stanford, Princeton and other prestigious universities, you can get a return of about 8, US dollars after 2 years, which is more than three times that of general regional state universities. Therefore, if you can attend a prestigious school, the loan and interest paid are more valuable.

For many parents who graduated from prestigious schools, it also symbolizes a family inheritance. In the past, many families passed on their wealth and small and medium-sized enterprises to the next generation, but now many people work in large enterprises, and there is no family enterprise to pass on to future generations. Many parents try their best to get their children into prestigious schools and give them their degrees as gifts.

However, the gate of star schools is getting narrower and narrower. Under the global competition, more and more foreign students are admitted to prestigious schools, and the admission rate announced to the outside world is often less than 6%. Students' scores in entrance examinations such as SAT and ACT are often close to or completely perfect. If the academic performance is not good, another way to squeeze into these narrow doors is to take athletes to school or parents to donate a lot. But none of these methods can guarantee admission to a prestigious school. (See more > > In private exams, one out of every six junior high school students in Taichung attends private schools. < P > Anxious parents, like those in Asia, have become helicopters hovering over their children. In order to get high marks in college entrance examinations such as SAT and ACT, C2 Education, a chain tutoring class founded by Harvard graduates, has expanded rapidly. The tuition fee for 2 hours will cost about NT$ 4,. It is also common for parents to help their children fill out college application documents, and even mistakenly fill in their own information on their children's documents, making jokes.

William Rick Singer, the mastermind of this cheating case, took advantage of the situation. He said that to enter a prestigious school, you can go through the front door by strength, or through the back door by donation and networking, but there is no absolute guarantee. He provided a "side door" with absolute guarantee. He introduced parents to send money to the entrance examiners through the foundation, or forged the athletes' qualification certificates of the applicants, or even bribed doctors' certificates, so that students could go to special examination rooms to extend their exams, or bribed invigilators for SAT, ACT and other exams to take the exams on their behalf, or tampered with students' answers, so that students could get high scores in the exams or get tickets to prestigious schools. The cost of each family ranges from tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars.

anxious and desperate parents, compared with their children's attitudes, show the values and generation gap of these wealthy families. Singh said that students were kept in the dark and didn't know that they were going to school by the side door. They take exams and apply just like ordinary children, and they don't know the tampered background homework. Obviously, adults also know that this is something they shouldn't do and dare not let their children know. (See more > > Beating motherhood "doing too much", I am proud to let my son be independent)

Some children have entered famous schools, but they may not cherish them. The TV stars Lori Loughlin and his wife, who starred in "Full House" series, spent $5, to get their two children into USC through Singer, but her little daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli, who has 2 million YouTube subscribers and 1.3 million Instagram followers, told herself on social media. "As you all know, I never cared about school. She bluntly said that going to college is mainly because of the expectations of her parents who didn't go to college, and she is very excited to go to college because she can watch football games and attend parties. (See more > > Xiao Ye: Even if you make the wrong choice, your life will not be ruined.

But the most embarrassing thing is the values of adults. The prosecution document published by the United States is 24 pages long, and many of the parents' eavesdropped conversations are incredible. As a well-known multinational law firm Will Kiefarr &; Gallagher*** and Gordon Caplan, the host, knowingly broke the law and spent $75, to help her daughter get a fake ACT score. He even said, "Honestly, I'm not worried about the morality of this matter. What worries me is that if she is caught, she will be finished.

Obviously, these unsuspecting children are really finished because of their desperate and even crazy parents.