We want to stop this “testing” thing because it reveals the kids that might be losers, and that’s not fair. Everybody is a winner. That self esteem crap and all.
Boy, are you ever right about the self-esteem thing. We learned a weird lesson from the neighborhood kids one year when our children were in elementary school, some 15 to 20 years ago.
We sent our children to private Catholic school instead of the local public schools. I remember one time it was report card time and my father was visiting. He decided to pay my children according to their letter grades received. A’s received $1, B’s 75 cents, and C’s were awarded 50 cents. Our oldest was in third grade, and the neighbor boy came over to play. When he heard that my son got paid for his good grades, he asked my Dad if he would pay him for his report card. My Dad was a good sport, so he told the young man that if he brought his report card over to him, he would pay him the same rates.
When Christopher came back with his report card, we were surprised to discover that he had no letter grades at all. There were only “warm fuzzies” (symbols) and “cold pricklies” with comments. He got 3 warm fuzzies for pretty much every subject with comments like “Christopher is a pleasure to teach in class” and “Christopher pays attention at appropriate times.” My Dad & I were so puzzled that he just awarded Christopher the same amount my son earned.
Report cards were never brought up again with the neighbor kids again when my Dad visited. I never really knew how to ask my neighbors about these “grades” their children received from the public school. I just knew my kids would never in a million years go the same schools. If that made us outcasts in the neighborhood (it did), so be it.