According to educator Edes Gilbert, getting a good education for their children is not the only factor motivating some of today's parents to enroll their children in elite schools.

During her 15 years as headmistress of Spence, a prestigious Upper East Side girls school in New York City, Ms. Gilbert has seen an increasing number of parents using their children's education for their own benefit. It seems that for many parents, having a child admitted into a prestigious school is important not only for the child's sake, but also for the enormous social advantages it provides the parents. Contacts made in the elite elementary school context can give parents a leg up in the social scene.

This mixed parental motivation for admission has had a dramatic impact on the children's educational environment. Ms. Gilbert knows parents have applied to her kindergarten because the children of Sigourney Weaver, Michael Bloomberg, and Katie Couric attended there. Parents lobby for their 7-year-olds to be assigned to classes with children whose parents are rich and prominent—in hopes that the parents would become friends. Parents jockey to volunteer for the parent committees that would give them the best contacts. It has degenerated to the point where "Back to School Night" has taken on the atmosphere of a competitive Park Avenue cocktail party.

It's sad when people have mixed motives in the education of their children. It's also sad when people have mixed motives in serving God.