Friday, November 12, 2010

Day 285: Politically correct and all that jazz

Today is grade check for my students for sports and extra curricular activities. If they aren't passing everything, they can't play. You would think this would be motivating, but no, I have an astronomical failure rate. I have never had a failure rate so high, or at least it feels high to me. I have two-thirds of one of my classes failing and I feel devastated. They are failing because they refuse to turn in homework. 80% or more of it was done in class, and they still cannot turn it in.

I feel like being politically correct had its roots in being kind and tolerant, but has run rampant where we can no longer speak the truth in case we hurt someone's feelings. Children are taught to have self esteem, but don't understand earning the right to be proud of yourself. We all have the right to be loved, accepted as human beings, but the right to pride and some aspects of respect have to be earned. I understand watching the little league team that loses be disappointed and wanting to cheer them up. Who can't empathize with disheartened children, but do we do them a disservice by negating the goal they failed to achieve. If losing doesn't sting, who works to win?

What do these two ideas have to do with each other? I think the increased pressure on adults to focus on raising self-esteem has led to a severe flaw in our current educational system. Maybe this is a problem in the geographical area I live in, maybe others are seeing it as well, but students seem to feel more and more like the world owes them a life and less and less like they have to do anything to earn a place in this world.

I don't know that I have any answers today, but I do know that unlimited chances to complete assignments, minimum allowable grades, and the ilk has led to an attitude of apathy seeming to pervade our current culture. I never would have accepted a zero for an assignment. I might not have put 100% into my work all the time, but I generally wanted to do well. I often was the kid with the 98% wondering why I lost two points. It just baffles me that students will sit in class while we're working on a project, do very little and then just take a zero. This was work they didn't even need to take home. If they worked with average diligence, they should have been able to finish it in class. And it was a facebook page for William Shakespeare. They should have had so much fun with that! I made it relevant to their culture, gave them a tangible product, passed out rubrics and gave them class time to work. About 80% of what was turned in would have been failing grades for 6th graders when I was their age.

They don't equate what they do with what they deserve. I saw students turn in slop and truly believe it was amazing. But our school puts pressure on us to give the kids the benefit of the doubt, "Is failing Johnny really what is best for him in the long run?"

When did that answer quit being, 'yes'?!?!? My parents told me the stove was hot; they watched me and tried to protect me from burning myself; eventually, I either learned the stove was hot by listening or touching it. If you never let a child get disappointed, burned or failed, then have you failed him?

Most of the best things I have ever learned was from when I failed or struggled. Even if the lesson was just that I am capable of getting back up, I learned my strengths and weaknesses through the struggle. Today, we use being politically correct and leaving no children behind as a smoke screen to disguise that we're letting emotions govern reason. I am all for being kind, but the greatest kindness might be pointing kids toward things they can really feel good about instead of keeping them from failure.

I'm just afraid by the time we as adults realize we've failed them, it will be too late for our society. The movie "Idiocracy" feels more and more prophetic and less comedic every year. Water your plants people, Gatorade isn't good for them.

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