Tuesday, June 2, 2015

School a Fail

Carmen spent hours and hours on her grade 6 project. She researched and read pages of information and planned her report. She scoured the Internet for pictures and diagrams and interesting facts to include. She took the time to put together the best report on the life of Leonardo da Vinci that she could. And what did she get for all that hard work?


That's it. A checkmark. Not even a comment saying "Good Job" or "Sucky Job" or "Congrats on actually turning it in on time and complete, unlike some of your classmates." Nope. A measly checkmark. Throughout her report there are a few other checkmarks in the margin, I'm assuming to signify the teacher's recognition that required elements were present, but there was no commentary on the quality of the writing or information.

The reason, I can only assume from conversations with teachers throughout the year, is that the teachers can't assign a grade to projects or assignments. They don't want to rank or judge students as this may attack the child's self-esteem should he or she get a subpar mark. But I went to the biography fair and while many of the tri-folds that went with this project were fantastic, I saw some that were likely slapped together the night before, skinny on content and assembled without much care or thought. Perhaps those students deserved that subpar grade? Apparently not.

I can't help thinking about the other side of the coin. What about the kids who are striving for and achieving excellence? What about how they feel? What about the lesson that if you put in the time and effort, you will be rewarded? Because there is no reward here. Not anymore.

My kids' schools aren't doing students any favours by not testing them or sending homework home EVER, or by not grading their assignments or insisting that deadlines are met. They aren't setting our kids up for success by taking away public recognition for hard work and intelligence (i.e. Honour Roll) in order to spare the feelings of those who aren't achieving those high levels. And they are unrealistically presenting the Outside World as one where we all equally merit a checkmark and will be treated the same regardless of how much work we put in to a job or the results of that effort.

It's no surprise that post-secondary students are entering university and college completely unprepared for the reality of competition and expectation. Unprepared for failure and disappointment. They've spent a dozen years being completely sheltered from it. I say, it's time to inject a bit of tough love into the system.

Schools would do kids a service by letting them get cut from the basketball team or see a D grade on a project they really didn't put much effort into. Teach them to handle these negative experiences and learn from them, build character. Teach them that you have to perform at a certain level if you want to receive an A, and I suppose the level that yields a C or an F too. And at the same time schools need to hold the top of the class up as the academic examples and allow those students to feel the pride of accomplishment. 

Maybe it's a delicate balance between education and character. Maybe I'm insensitive to the hurt feelings of those who aren't high achievers or keeners. I'm not sure exactly what the answer is but I really don't think the current system is it. I'd rather my kids learn early that they have to balance their leisure and work/school life, that they have to work for what they want and even then they might not get it. These are tough lessons, but I'd rather my kids start learning them in elementary and middle school than be blind-sided after graduation.

I can only hope that our schools will begin to prepare our kids for their future and that teacher's will again be able to assign grades--REAL grades--according to performance. I'm not optimistic that this will happen. In fact, I'm pretty sure it won't. My kids will continue to earn a checkmark while the entire school system gets an F.




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