meritocracy

Meritocracy - Noun, plural, meaning - an elite group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilage or wealth. However is this true? After watching "a classroom divided" I think no. The most shocking report from this film was the fact that the students "when they were the lesser people" had worse scores then when they thought they were superior, so it's sort of based on whats going on in the head of people at the time, not basic skills or abilities. For instance if people keep telling you you're dumb eventually you might come to the conclusion you are confusing your abilities and talents to the point were it becomes harder when in reality you are way more qualified for the task then you think you are. It seems more of a mind game then a part of just ability and talent, speaking of privilege, back in the day, the rich or wealthy were the only ones allowed to go to school or get a good education not all of them were purely working on ability but by social luck in of a since that they were born in to a family with lots of money, so to some all of this up in a nice coherent way, i do not believe in "meritocracy" in the least