If it's everybody's, it's nobody's (public land). If everyone is responsible, no one is (it takes a village, liability lawsuits). If everyone is special, no one is (public education):
When Kyra Rogers was younger, she dreamed of being one of those students who had earned a 4.0 GPA - and the right to wear a white robe in the front row at Durango High School's graduation.
"It was motivational for me when I saw it," she said of the robes.
Rogers, part of the class of 2008, earned perfect grades and looked forward to the honor. Then she heard that Principal Diane Lashinsky planned to end the tradition.
"We had the rug pulled out from under us," said Jessica Branson, another member of the Class of 2008 with perfect grades.
Students who earned at least a 4.0 GPA will be recognized by cords, and mentioned in the program at the May 24 graduation ceremony. But this year, the 4.0 students will wear red robes along with all their classmates.
[. . .]
Lashinsky was traveling and could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But she explained her decision in a recent newsletter.
"Every graduate has met the graduation requirements, and every child is special on graduation day," Lashinsky wrote. "I feel the white gowns worn by some graduates diminish the accomplishment and hard work of other graduates by relative comparison."
That lousy, elitist 4.0 student thinks "motivation" to excel is important? Someone dares to go to the "everyone is special" ceremony with perfect grades? No place in the self-esteem movement for her!
Comments
"It takes a village idiot".
The more I thought about this the madder I got. Coming from an entire family of teachers, all of whom demand the most from their students, I am awestruck by the mediocrity being shoved down our throats for the second straight decade.
This crap started in the 90's where "everyone is special" and competition is detrimental to the psyche of the average student.
From scoreless basketball games (can't have losers) like my sons endured, to rubber & woodchip playgrounds, to grading systems comprised of "satisfactory" or "needs improvement" instead of ABCDF, to the current day graduations where exemplary academic performance is not only NOT recognized but actually discouraged, we are creating an entire generation of under-achievers.
This is a perfect example of how "progressives" are sucking the very life out of this country. For lack of a better analogy, they are turning our entire education system into one big "special olympics" meet, whereby everybody is a medalist and a winner.
That's just not how life works, and these kids are going to be ill-prepared for real life...
Tim and Leo - this is a much bigger problem than you think, as it has already invaded the business sector. Recall in a previous reply to a different post I mentioned that the company I work for had (2 years ago) reset everyone
Yeah, but Larry, How do they all "feel" about themselves? That's what is important after all.
Leo,
I have to applaud your take on this, in spite of the fact that you said it SO WELL while that tongue was firmly affixed in your cheek.
Tim:
Couldn't have said it better myself (oh wait, I have said that myself...often). And having married a school teacher, she knows it all too well herself.
Prepared for LIFE???
Yahsureyoubetcha...LMAO!
Good thing about THEIR future...WE won't be around to watch it fail so miserably.
;)
B.G.
Tim, ... being one of the ones who got "reset" from way above the bar to average, I know I "feel" just great about it, ...
This is a perfect example of how
Larry, let me offer a second explanation for the standards-reset at your place of employment, as we all went through something similar during my time at the News-Sentinel.
The scenario: The company is charged by its financial officers with squeezing every last nickel out of the bottom line. Once a few nickels are trimmed, mainly through such morale-boosters as axing the Christmas party, curtailing overtime and pushing up health-insurance costs by double-digit percentages (while the CEO et al get huge bonuses), the CFO says "Great! Now, for next quarter, we'd like a few dimes, too." And so on. Obviously, one of the most expensive bottom-line items are those damn EMPLOYEES, so there's either a salary freeze or, more commonly, niggardly raises. Direct supervisors do performance reviews, and don't want to punish their underlings, who are already pissed off and resentful, so they write their evaluations with an eye toward getting their people the best raises possible. Yes, it's grade inflation, but it's grade inflation with a heart.
And, p.s., it has nothing to do with self-esteem.
In my last years at the N-S, there was a lot of saber-rattling about getting those performance reviews back in line with reality, and the way it was solved was to make the raises crappy across the board. Well, that did the trick, because then the scale was "insulting," "somewhat less insulting" and "insulting plus half a percent" -- a real motivator!
I once had lunch with a friend and told him I'd just received my first paycheck reflecting this year's 4 percent raise. His face fell. "What did you do to deserve that?" he said. "Got 'exceeds standards' on my review!" I replied. Good times, good times.
(Nowadays, of course, 4 percent would be your bump for winning a Pulitzer AND a MacArthur genius grant, but only if they were in the same year.)
Fun fact: Guess how much Knight-Ridder CEO's son, Par Ridder, got for "relocation expenses" when he moved his household from California to St. Paul, Minn., where he was taking the publisher's job? $248,253 -- it's in the SEC filings. I bet his self-esteem was really high.
Wow Nance, you sound bitter enough to grab a gun and go to church.
I always thought "journalists" weren't in it for the money?