That's when I realized it...it's not them, it's us.
Children aren't making laws. Children aren't grading tests. Children aren't assigning course work. We are the ones in control of their education. The adults and teachers who are involved in the education of our precious children are FAILING them...miserably!
Let's get real for a second. If you're late to work, rarely do ANY work, or turn in your work 3 months late, do you get a "re-do"? Does your boss allow you to come and go as you please? Do you always leave your work at work and have hours of free time at night? NO! If I don't do my job, I get fired. It's plain and simple.
Since when did lowering rigor prove to be a good thing? Are we making that 60 too attainable? Are we pouring our hearts and souls into these children or are we discouraging questions and watering down course work so it's "easily digestible"? When did life become easy? We aren't doing these children any favors by going easy on them. We are raising a generation that truly believes that they do not have to work for anything.
The drop out rate is horrendous and the attendance was either completely made up, or given to an "appeal process" committee who "okay-ed" EVERY.SINGLE.PERSON. Yes, even the people who missed over 40 days. Schools are doing this....probably the one right down the road from your house. The policy clearly stated that over 10 days would result in an automatic failure. Why didn't we write a big "just kidding" notice on the front of that policy? This isn't with just one school, but with MULTIPLE SCHOOLS. So now, to "fix" this, there is no attendance policy. That's right people, you can miss 90 days of school and still pass as long as your work is done. Who really needs to learn promptness, responsibility, and accountability, anyway?
It gets even better. Here's a blurb from The Gaston Gazette.
If that doesn't hit you right in the feels, then I don't know what will. Our children are filled with talents, abilities, and gifts beyond what we can fathom. Are we really okay with letting them feel like it's okay to be mediocre? I certainly wouldn't want my son or daughter being encouraged to "get by". Are we really okay with the future leaders, politicians, and military having a "mediocre" education and watered down training? What the system currently says is: We're okay with raising a generation of slackers. I hear "I'm not doing that because it's so boring" or "He's a bad teacher because he's boring" over and over and over again. Yes, because paying bills, shopping for groceries, writing checks, going to appointments, having early meetings, experiencing problems in your relationship (children, marriage, friends) is so fun and exciting. Can you see my eyes rolling from here? Where is this going to stop!?
I have fully decided that it is going to stop with me. I agree, we CANNOT do anything about many of the policies currently in place. However, what can we do something about? Gone are the days where everyone gets a trophy and everyone is a winner. That's just not the case in life. Think about it, we've all failed at something and felt really crappy about it. But did you not learn something from that? When I was an all star cheerleader, I fell on my face, "ate mat", and bled more times than I'm willing to admit. I spent four years...FOUR YEARS falling in my standing tuck. Yep, that's right, I fell (hard, with carpet burn on my face and both elbows, the same shoulder dislocated more times than I can count) on the SAME SINGLE SKILL for that long. I spent 3 remedial math classes, 2 "real" math classes, and multiple tutoring sessions crying because I couldn't figure out electron dot formula or if I was supposed to solve for x or y.
However, you want to know what I learned? Good things don't come easy. Anything worth having takes hard work. You'll get sad, you'll get upset, and you'll get down right pissed sometimes - at yourself! But, I also learned that I can do things I never thought I could do. I learned that the things that hold us back are only preparing our muscles for something greater. I learned patience, perseverance, and I tried a whole hell of a lot harder when I knew what I could lose. I found out quickly that the real world wasn't kind to strangers and the learning curve was something serious. But, what do I have to show for all of that hard work and failure? A job that I LOVE, students who are like family, and a salary that is paid in something you cannot buy. All of the really crappy, upsetting, infuriating times, brought me to this...which I wouldn't trade for the world.
Let's be honest with these kids. Life is hard. Before you know it, you're a grown up having to make grown up decisions. Life is so much more than the football game on Friday nights and making a 70 on your math test just to go on to Math 2. One day, you will graduate to a world that doesn't accept late work or, most importantly, no work.
It's sickening to me to see A students crying over ACT and SAT scores. It hurts to see children who think they did well in high school drop out of college after the first semester. It hurts even more to see a system give up on students who were plucked from a weeping willow of a family tree and never given any hope to prosper. I am not going to fool my students any longer.
From now on, I refuse to accept late work. I refuse to water down a standard just because it is a difficult concept. I refuse to give anything more than a 0 for 0 work. I promise to be real with my students. I promise to up the rigor, not by giving extra work, but by emphasizing the gems of the real world: trustworthiness, respect, good manners, diligence, intelligence, optimism, hard work, and responsibility. We can't do anything about policy, but we can make the policy fit our high standard. I'm a firm believer that we can fix this thing through accountability and consistency. Make that 60 hard to obtain, and make the 90 even harder. Show your children that there is a life outside of their circumstances, and a world that caters to no one but the brave.
