313Chris:hellokitty_headbang: :italianamerican: on Nostr: True story: At 13 years old, I applied to a Catholic high school called De La Salle ...
True story: At 13 years old, I applied to a Catholic high school called De La Salle Collegiate, which at the time was a well-regarded launching pad into an eventual college of one’s choice. I went there and took the admissions test one Saturday morning with a classroom full of other 8th grade hopefuls from across the Detroit area, and a few weeks later I got a rejection letter in the mail.
I was really angry about that for many years. About a decade later I learned from an acquaintance who graduated from De La Sallie, that the reason for my rejection had nothing to do with how I scored on the test, but rather it was because my family never attended mass services and thus never put anything in the donation plate. Kids whose parents weighted that plate down the heaviest were the ones who moved up highest on the placement list.
I can’t help but think of that scene from Kingdom of Heaven where, during the stalemate of the Battle of Jerusalem, that Bishop tells Balian, “Convert to Islam, repent later” and Balian replies, disaffected, “You’ve taught me a lot about religion”.
I was really angry about that for many years. About a decade later I learned from an acquaintance who graduated from De La Sallie, that the reason for my rejection had nothing to do with how I scored on the test, but rather it was because my family never attended mass services and thus never put anything in the donation plate. Kids whose parents weighted that plate down the heaviest were the ones who moved up highest on the placement list.
I can’t help but think of that scene from Kingdom of Heaven where, during the stalemate of the Battle of Jerusalem, that Bishop tells Balian, “Convert to Islam, repent later” and Balian replies, disaffected, “You’ve taught me a lot about religion”.