The dishonor roll.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Rundles Wrap-Up

I GREW UP AND WENT TO SCHOOL IN A FACTORY town, Flint, Mich., back in the days when everyone believed that the power of America was in American labor. Some guys I went to high school with couldn't wait to turn 18 so they could drop out and get a high-paying job in one of the General Motors plants that dominated our world.

About eight years later, after I moved away, went to college and worked a few years in my chosen profession, I ran into one of those old high school mates on a visit home. While exchanging the usual pleasantries, I was struck by an absurdity that has haunted me ever since. The conversation--I kid you not--went exactly like this: GM guy: "How ya doin?" Me: "Fine. You?" GM guy: "Great. What 'ya doing these days?" Me: "I'm a newspaper reporter in Denver. How about you?" GM guy: "I've got 22 years to go on my retirement."

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Some power of American labor, huh?

I haven't thought about this conversation for a long time, but a report recently brought it to mind. A few weeks back the Nashville, Tenn., public schools did away with the academic Honor Roll because, a news story said, it has "become an apparent source of embarrassment for some underachievers."

I couldn't believe it.

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The Nashville schools should just put up a sign that says: "We honor mediocrity." The story bothered me so much that I have been talking about it with anyone who will listen.

Two friends of mine, as it happens, have significant business operations in the Nashville area, and I asked each of them whether they thought the action by the Nashville Public Schools on banning the Honor Roll would have an impact on their ability to find quality workers. In so many words, both of them answered, "I'm worried."

They should be worried, and so should every business owner, business manager, politician, and every American--even those potentially embarrassed underachievers.

The thing they have to understand--the thing we all have to grasp, and now, before it's too late--is that what makes America great, what has always made America great, is not American labor, but American know-how. We don't outwork the rest of the world; we out-think them.

We can't compete with the billions of Chinese and Indians and other peoples of the world based on labor, and...