Posted on 01/29/2004 9:27:24 PM PST by ntnychik
Not all equal
This is obscenity in its most vomitive form.
In Tennessee, school districts in Nashville have stopped releasing their honor rolls. Some are looking at ending the practice of hanging the best of student work in hallways. Spelling bees? Doomed, most likely.
This is how the All Children Left Behind initiative begins.
Parents of students at some Nashville schools complained that their children might be ridiculed for not making the honors list. School attorneys extrapolated the rest -- some students' work in the halls, but not others, might create downtrodden students.
This gets worse. Unbelievably, it gets worse.
"I discourage competitive games at school. They just don't fit my world view of what a school should be." Is this from a parent of an underachieving student? No! It's from Principal Steven Baum of Julia Green Elementary School in Nashville.
Regarding honor rolls, Baum remarked, "The rationale was, if there are some children that always make it and others that always don't make it, there is a very subtle message that was sent."
Yes, of course, but there's nothing subtle about the message. Some students make grades; some might require more help. The way to ascertain which is which is not by lumping them all into a mass of indistinguishable pupil goo, saying that that way, none can be left behind, smiling and calling it a solution.
There has to come a time, there has to be a realization that the methods being employed today to homogenize achievement and assure that everyone is shown to be on an even playing field is damaging beyond our wildest imagination.
To step back from the edge of hyperventilation for just a moment, the issue, Tennessee officials claim, is privacy as much as anything. State privacy laws forbid releasing any academic information without permission, leading to the requirement that in the future parents who want to see their child's name in the local paper will have to sign a form at the beginning of the year noting that it's OK.
The only scrap of silver in this dark cloud is that Tennessee's student-privacy laws are unique -- most other states follow federal statutes that allow for release of positive student information without the need for a permission slip.
But that still doesn't excuse schools from hiding the light of their best and brightest students under a bushel basket. Of what use is achievement, for what reason is the development of drive and determination, if such isn't to be recognized in the environment where it's supposed to be encouraged?
Nashville is so far wrong on this issue that it leaves us slack-jawed with amazement as much as horror.
How many thousands of children do we recognize in our pages every month? From schools large and small, public and private, universities and nursery schools. These lists of names are a reason for pride among those therein, and the development of pride and self-esteem are at least as important to any student -- to any human -- as is the development of skills in reading, writing, mathematics, language and other areas of study.
Suggesting -- no, requiring -- that one person's self-esteem, derived from his own accomplishments, must be subsumed by the requirement to avoid, at any and all costs, a concomitant loss in self-esteem by an individual who has achieved less, is utterly against rationality
We are overcome, and literally at a loss for words in describing the effect this concept has on us. The only thing we can hope is that it gets crushed underfoot, quickly and completely, and no one else floats the idea anywhere else, ever again.
Don't get me going on zero tolerance! Those are policies the admins think will save them from having to think, decide, and dare I say discriminate (in its former benign meaning).
In our middle school our rate was more toward 70%. Grade inflation to the extreme, with some well meaning "self esteem" rationale thrown in.
My children and their friends were offended by teachers who discouraged competition.
Of course, it's Bush's fault. All the teachers and administrators were gung-ho on the competitive spirit until he came around.....
In these schools all the children are above average*... and all the schools are above average*...
*In these schools "above average" is defined as any IQ greater than zero, any grade better than an F-, and attendance means enrolled (presence not required)!
Thanks for the post and ping ! How asinine of those school officials ..._____________________
Hey, Tennessee ! Did algore ever mend them fences ? I didn't think so !
That's the ONE!! Take away their 'drive' to be better, hand out the welfare checks, and control them! It frightens me for my grandchildren!!
Al, you got some splaining to do!
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