Posted on 06/19/2008 5:32:06 AM PDT by Amelia
...It's been decades since schools first outlawed failure and adopted the false mantra that all students are guaranteed success. Our national education law, No Child Left Behind, rests on two mutually exclusive wishful absurdities...schools have to raise standards so they reflect world-class college expectations...At the same time, every student, including those with learning handicaps or simply less than average ability, has to meet those elevated standards, or else the school is in trouble.
There's no such thing as high standards that everybody can meet. That's why we can't all make it as major league ballplayers or Marines.
The one essential for success that does lie within each student's control is the one essential we don't talk about. You'll rarely hear much about diligence and perseverance in today's scholastic master plans. Instead of effort, we talk about fun. Instead of extolling self-discipline and the personal and societal benefits of self-improvement, we bribe kids with cash and MP3 players.
[snip]
No wonder an Arizona high school senior complains it's unfair that she failed her math graduation exam just because she "doesn't understand math." Officials preach the pursuit of excellence but eliminate valedictorians because they're too elitist. Schools water down the honor roll so more kids can be on it. To avoid discouraging students, Dallas teachers can't give any grade lower than a 50, even if the student doesn't hand anything in. Because in our brave new on-demand world, everyone gets to come in first, and everyone gets to be comfortable.
It isn't just our schools. We want everybody to have health care, but we expect somebody else to pay for it. We demand the right to live our own lives and make our own mistakes, but then we want society to pick up the tab and cancel our consequences...
(Excerpt) Read more at rutlandherald.com ...
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We have a test for seniors and if they don’t pass they don’t graduate. Even if they have the grades and flunk the test no diploma.
We have the same thing, and the kids get 5 chances to pass before graduation. That doesn’t stop annual protests from parents whose children can’t graduate because they’ve failed the test 5 times in a row....
They need another year if they can’t pass the test. What they really needed was to be held back a year before starting first grade.
The test is easy. What they really need is to TUNE IN and listen up, study, be serious about THEIR education. They would pass with flying colors. You cannot learn everything you need to know at the last minute, when it finally dawns on you that you are a knucklehead.
Which I think is exactly what the article is saying...
I see a lot of students who seem to think they are "owed" passing grades, a diploma, and finally a great job with a nice house & car, without any effort on their own parts...
Virginia has SOL's or Standards of Learning. Kids have to pass a certain number of tests for either a standard or advanced diploma. Every student in VA if they have a standard diploma has passed the class and the test for Algebra, 1 lab science, 1 history, 2 literacy, and 1 student selected. This year in our county there were ZERO children ineligible to graduate - in other words, when their feet are held to the fire, kids figure out a way to learn
Absolutely on the money.
This is true. I teach middle school in Los Angeles, and most of my students are Hispanic boys who excel in soccer and mechanics, and girls who excel in child care and gossip. Making them read "The White Umbrella" with an eye toward gender perspective is an exercise in misery for all concerned. Most of them can barely read and have no interest in learning.
Oh yes I totally agree with you. VoTek is sadly missing and so very important. I think the kids get bored to tears with theoretical academics and definitely should have the opportunity to do Real Stuff. I forgot that part — I have been volunteering at a local high school and have this pix indelibly in my mind’s-eye of slouch-butt kids. hahaha. Pardon the lens ...
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