I've been getting confused a bit lately. When I was in school I received grades either by letter or number. I wasn't graded on the 4.0 scale. That isn't what confuses me though. What I am getting confused about is the assigned value. Now A+, 100 and 4.0 was always the best you could get. That was a perfect score. It meant no mistakes, all correct answers. But lately I've been seeing these stories about young people receiving grades of 4.6 and higher! I'm confused, how can you be better than perfect? It just leaves me wondering, is that real, or is that pandering. Is it an artificial inflation, something better than? As I said, I'm just a bit confused about all of that. ? Like 4.0 just isn't good enough to compete so something more is necessary? How can you be better than perfect?
In other articles I have reading about the effect Covid has had on education. The test scores are much lower across the board. Well when kids don't go to school I'm not really surprised by any of that but then I haven't been to college so what would I know about that. When parents do not get involved with the children, encouraging, which in my house included threats, grades normally suffer. How many parents were involved with that virtual learning stuff or still are? But overall education is suffering in America because we became too concerned with the children being entertained and engaged rather than learning the lessons! You have to teach the basics before you can teach advanced classes. Well at least that is what I always believed. Now I read an article about a fifteen year old that graduated from college, before he graduated from high school. Yes, he hasn't completed the course of instruction for a high school diploma but was awarded a college degree. Now I'm not questioning his intelligence, obviously a gifted person here, but if he completed the requirements for a college level degree should he not have completed the high school level one? I'm a bit confused about that as well. I'm just saying, hard to build the upstairs before you complete the basement. Well, must be some more of that liberal logic at work there.
More concerning to me is this notion that the government should be deciding upon the lesson plans. There has already been testimony before congress about just that. This critical race theory stuff and all the sexualizations' of students into categories. Gay kids, trans kids, all that nonsense! They're kids! The government attempting to rewrite history and make all the white kids feel some sense of guilt for the past. What effect will that have on future generations? All the civil rights leaders in history simply want equality. To be treated the same, the intent is not to become the exceptions to the rule, but rather have the rule equally applied. When "measured" education, (ie: grades tied to revenue,) is the standard it is inevitable that the grades will be inflated. Doesn't take much of an education to understand that. Tell me I will get a raise if I work hard, then ask me how hard I work. Ask me, are you doing your best? I'm not going to say, well I'm a bit of a slacker, could do more but don't feel like it. See my point?
Education has to be tailored individually. That is the role of a teacher. A teacher is there to inspire, to guide, to cajole, encourage, reward and punish the student. A good teacher knows how to do that on an individual basis, knowing their students. I was fortunate to have had several of those in elementary and high school. Some inspired my intellect, and others inspired manual skills. I did feel like I was getting attention from those teachers and it was important. I wasn't aware of that at the time, but those teachers were. Today it seems like the teachers are being instructed to, make the grades, and keep the money flowing in. This common core stuff is a product of the Gates foundation and the Department of Education. Traditionally curriculum was decided by local government is response to the regional needs of the students and the communities. Yes, students were taught what would be useful in their communities. As a result they were often successful in finding employment and successful in general. Yes cornhuskers weren't really instructed in trading stocks and students in New York City weren't being taught horticulture.
Well, I've wandered around a bit this morning in my thoughts. But these are some of the things I think about as I listen to the news or browse the internet. I suppose it is "old folks syndrome" and should be treated with some medication from big pharma. Common sense and reason have become somewhat treatable these days. Not supposed to exercise either of those. A prime example is on the television right now. A young person illegally riding a dirt bike at high speed on a city street runs into the side of a firetruck and is killed. Now they need to check the surveillance cameras and open an investigation into this accident. Listen, someone that had no business riding a dirt bike on a city street crashed into a firetruck and was killed. Investigation complete. A firetruck was damaged but no fireman were hurt. Submit an insurance claim for the damage. Case closed. See, it's not hard at all.
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