School has begun in earnest and the bus routes are humming. Parking lots burst at the seams and kitchens echo with the clang of pots and pans as the cooks prepare meals for thousands of students around the county.
The introduction of student laptops rule conversations at some schools, while the upcoming football season is the topic of the day in others. Teachers ramp up their lessons plans and backpacks strain the spines of the younger set as a fresh semester gets underway.
Nobody sings the old refrain “readin’ and writin’ and ‘rithmetic” anymore, but the specter of the report card still holds forth from day one in the classroom. Over the past thirty or so years I have noticed an alarming trend in the schools. I noted it when my own sons were in high school in the mid to late 1980s and it continues to baffle me.
I suppose it is a reflection of some of the baby boomers that don’t want officials to keep score in ballgames. These are the same people who scream to high heaven at a Colts game when the call goes against the home team. Do you suppose that they would buy tickets to a pro game where the scoreboard stayed blank? Hmmmmm…..
Then, how — please tell me — does it make sense to water down the grading system? Once these students are out of high school, their performance will be measured. If they go to work, their supervisors and/or bosses will rate them on how well they work.
It only stands to reason that children should learn — from an early age — that work and results are linked. That goes for expectations, too. If you don’t expect much from another individual, you won’t be disappointed.
Let’s stand for high achievement among our students. No matter the grade, let’s emphasize academics to the hilt. If we want to take a measure of our actual achievement, look at the exchange students who come to America for a high school year. Most of them are at least two grade levels ahead of their US counterparts. And why, pray tell, is that?
Their teachers and parents expect them to excel. Are we ready for a world in which our children will take second or third place to foreign children in the workplace? I hope not. If you have any connection with a child in school — whether a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, neighbor or friend — make it a point to learn about what the children are doing in school and if or if not the educators place the bar high for them. I remember when it took 95% or above to get an “A”. It’s not that way now, and I have never heard an adequate, or common sense, answer as to why.
Schools should prepare our kids for the future, not allow them to slide along in an atmosphere that fails to parallel the world after high school. Think about it.