A Massachusetts principal has cancelled an honors convocation because some students would feel bad. They worked hard, after all, and didn't get all "A's". That last, given the dilapidated state of our schools is itself shocking. I'm surprised the school district even permits his teachers to give grades less than A.
I remember once, when my father was studying computer programming at a community college in the late '70s and he got a 4.0 transcript. We congratulated him, but he just scoffed. "I showed up and I paid my tuition. If you show up most of the time and pay your tuition you get a B+. If you don't show up, but pay your tuition, they may - after due deliberation, with caveats and hand-wringing - give you a B-. If you pay part of your tuition you get a C. If you don't show up and don't pay your tuition, then after consulting with their lawyers, tax accountants, psychologists, and seeking personal trauma counseling, they might give you a D."
We must allow for some distortion in the reporting, however. If you read to the end of the article, you find that he plans to include the honors assembly as part of the final end-of-year assembly where they'll recognize these students in front of everyone. On the other hand, his letter explaining the change says, basically, that it's not fair to those who work hard, make progress, but don't get the A, and that it's not fair when some students get support and encouragement at home while others don't.
I think the principal's decision could make sense. He'd rather not have that assembly early in the semester because it kills morale in those other hard-working students before they get to the end of the semester. In reaching for leftist nostrums about fairness and feelings and what not to explain moving the honors bit to the end of the term, not calling it "moving" but "cancelling," and so on, he's displaying a tin ear when it comes to public relations and a failure to grasp elementary logic. As a result, he gets plastered all over FoxNews as the poster boy for what's wrong with education in America and what is (I hope) momentary stupidity becomes his defining moment.
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4 comments:
The snark in this one is more than a little hyperbolic: "That last, given the dilapidated state of our schools is itself shocking. I'm surprised the school district even permits his teachers to give grades less than A."
Sitting on the other side of the table, I've had more than a few parents extremely upset that their students earned a "B." I was single-handedly destroying students' self-esteem.
Schools may be complicit in grade inflation, but teachers and adminstrators are not the only culprits.
I'm not going to defend the principal you write about in the post. I am going to tell you that I there aremore parents concerned about the grade and self-esteem than whether their students have learned anything and whether the grade reflects what they have learned.
How I long for the old days , when hometown news was hometown news. These days every event no matter how insignificant gets turned into propaganda for either the right or the left. Ssd.
LK - I understand the difficulty. The trust between teacher and parent has broken down when it comes to grades. As I say, I'm surprised the teachers are permitted to give grades less than "A".
I will also happily concede that this is because of parental pressure, too. School boards are elected, and they respond to the desires of their electorate. That's why I titled the post as I did.
But I also think schools, from pre-K to university, have been far too willing to give rather than educate on this point and that, indeed, they have fed this culture of "self-esteem" and "fairness" and all the rest.
Anonymous-
Yes, that's part of my point. Folks left & right have a narrative, and they reach for any episode, no matter how disconnected or isolated, that feeds their pre-established narrative. As I make clear, the story grabbed my attention because it fits my "narrative", but as I read it closely, I had to pull back. Maybe it's far, far less than the headline indicates.
Yes I did see that as part of your point and was encouraged by that fact into making my comment.
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