Letter to the Editor
I read an article a couple of days back about a teacher in Florida who was fired for refusing to give 50% credit to students who made no attempt to complete an assignment. The students turned in nothing! This was an eighth grade class.
As it turns out, the school administration had implemented a policy of giving all students 50% credit regardless of the work done or lack thereof.
The teacher observed, and I believe rightly so, that such a policy set the students up to fail in life by teaching that you could get half credit for doing nothing.
I am old enough to remember when they shifted from hard grades to grading on the “curve.” Grades went from 90%=A, 80%=B, 70%=C, 60%=D, and below 60% was an F, a fail with no credit, to grades given on a point matrix based on the highest student score. Students were held back for not meeting the academic requirements of a certain grade level. I clearly recall my grandmother, my mother and my Aunt Gladys, all employed in education, holding the opinion that it was the beginning of the end of quality education. They were absolutely correct.
In my life, I have held several positions where I was involved in making hiring decisions. Over the years, the quality of applicants became so poor that the Department of Labor instituted rules to force the hiring of unqualified applicants. Examples included persons who could not spell well enough to turn in a decent application. Many were lacking good speaking skills or the ability to think and reason for themselves. My biggest gripe was unintelligible reports. Math and reading skills were lower than any sixth grader in my day, and now the trend to favor “feelings” above reality has come to fruition. We will give students credit for no work done. We encourage life choices of gender, race, and even genus by children.
I am appalled by the outright foolishness of it all. The schools now cater to the whims of the students. If a student wants to be a cat they get a litter box. What happened to the flick of a ruler and a stern warning to return to reality or else? Johnny and Susie need to learn respect for each other and for authority. “Because I said so,” is a reason and needs to be reinstated in the educational and parenting theaters. Parents of my day would have removed their sons and daughters from any school that taught what they do now. Educators need to go back to teaching and stop indoctrinating. It is not your job to create clones who don’t think.
Finally, if your idea of a reasoned argument begins with a quote from some movie star or pop singer, you are the problem.
by Clint Hooten of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
