House of Eratosthenes

With the school year almost done, the pressure for marks is on – and not just for students, but also teachers.

A growing chorus of educators say Queen’s Park’s new drive to keep kids in school to 18 is pushing them to coddle students with inflated marks, too many second, third and fourth chances and too few flunking grades, adding to an already lofty sense of entitlement.

In a new survey of nearly 1,000 high school teachers in Durham Region, four out of 10 say they feel principals push them to drop standards so more students will pass. One in four feels pressured not to give an F.

Another one in four doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground, and the other two are liars. Well, that last part I’m just reading into it because I’m a cynical bastard.

Well really, shouldn’t I be? Our most critical jobs are entrusted to people with educational credentials. Not the most critical 10% or even the most critical 50%; rather, it’s gotten to the point where you need not apply for a position as a McDonald’s fry cook if you don’t have a Master’s. We’re definitely headed in that direction anyway…

…not that this says anything bad about employment prospects. We’ve got programs up the yin-yang to get you in somewhere. A growing consensus among us seems to feel there’s no purpose for even having a military, other than to dispense educational freebies. And yet — what’s going on at this high school, is no different from what’s happening in colleges. Public sector or private. The institution doesn’t exist to educate — if someone graduates without knowing something, nobody has anything for which to answer. Heads won’t roll. Nobody’s even embarrassed anymore.

No, what fails the litmus tests, at least the ones that count, is — a number of students being knocked back, or even, just receiving derogatory grades. Our educational institutions aren’t in the business of educating, they’re in the business of handing out bits of paper.

What are those bits of paper worth?

Well…at any given time, they’re going to be worth what people are held accountable for making sure that they’re worth. And at the moment, it would appear people are held accountable for handing ’em out. Quantity over quality. What do they prove? Eh…that answer’s practically self-explanatory. Nobody’s got any ass cheeks positioned over a Bunsen burner on this issue, so how can they be respected as anything proving squat?

I’m afraid we’ve left that era in history wherein diplomas actually prove anything. They’re just bits of procedure. Some folks follow process manuals that say you’ve gotta demand to see them, and other folks follow process manuals that say you are supposed to present them…and then some other folks follow process manuals that say you’re supposed to give them out.

Is the situation somewhat more complicated than that? Lordy Lordy, I’d love to think so. What I wouldn’t give up to be able to think so. But it’s been so long since a hunk of evidence has drifted my way, persuading me to.

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Feelings First, Education Second VIISaturday, June 9th, 2007

Feelings First, Education Second VII
Saturday, June 9th, 2007