I have some mixed emotions.
We just went through what the students call “graduation” but in reality is just a promotion ceremony where we hand out certificates, not diplomas. After all it is only the movement from eighth grade to ninth. You would not know that from the attention it gets with music, processioal, speeches, names read and recessional. Students dress up like it is a Harvard event. Parents come with flowers and balloons.
On one level it is a joke. We were given instructions by our district that we must allow students with two “F” grades to participate. We know that people with multiple failures over the last three years will be promoted to the next grade. It is called social promotion. If they did not have all their book responsibility taken care of they participated, walked across the stage and received an envelope but it did not contain the certificate. So even if you did not bother to be responsible you got all the attention that those who had fulfilled their requirements received. Like I said, a joke.
Another action is what I have mixed feelings about. We have a large number of special education students at our school. The group I am talking about are in special classes all day but have lunch and breaks with the general education students. They went through the promotion just like the rest of the students. They are human beings and deserve the dignity of being treated as such. But what does it say when a kid who has a hard time figuring out how to walk across a stage is given the same recognition as someone headed to an Ivy League school? When we went to the park the previous week they went along. Fine. Some of them needed an adult with them at all times because they are so out of touch with life. Fine. Should they walk across a stage like they were doing real academic work when they probably don’t understand what is going on? Tie that together with the students who could do the work, refuse, and get to walk also. What does that say to the young people who are still trying to do their best and see the unqualified getting the same rewards?
I have mixed feelings but I see the results in lower scores, less effort and borderline chaos on campus. Whatever my feelings, it isn’t working.
homo unius libri
We seem to be teaching our kids that everyone is a winner, whether they earned the recognition or not. Their future employers aren't going to care whether they feel good about themselves. They will care whether or not they can do the job.
ReplyDeleteCan I quote you? Oh, wait. I have already quoted you. I often stand at the door letting in the hoards of tardy students and as they come in I say, "You're fired." I keep telling other teachers I would rather have them run into the wall now, when there is time to recover, than when they have been kicked out of their parents' house.
DeleteEducators are into feeling good now instead of doing well later.
Grace and peace.