I began teaching in Southern California 34 years ago and remember quite clearly being told by mentor teachers that I could not give a student the grade of F they had clearly earned, because “You can’t give students a grade lower than a C, because the parents would be upset.”
Now, 34 years later, after teaching 32 years in the Lammersville School District, the sentiment is still the same. I’ve discovered certain students are not held accountable to district standards, either because their speech services trump district retention policies, support staff have more clout than the classroom teacher, or parents feel their child should be promoted to the next grade even though they have not passed any standards throughout the school year.
I’m retiring after 34 years of teaching so that I can take care of my husband, but in reflection I now understand why our school system is failing our students. I’m so glad that I’m retiring, because I always believed that I was in this profession to help children learn, hold them accountable to certain standards, and do what was best for the child and the class as a whole.
There are students and parents who truly put their full efforts into education, while others are just passed along in spite of their inadequacies. I guess this is a statement about the future of our educational system, and makes it clear to me why so many countries don’t even recognize our education as a valid system.
College level civic exam avg scores hover around 50% - and we wonder how certain politicians get elected.
Stand at a cash register which malfunctions and watch the young person panic because they can't figure out change on a $20 for a $11.49 purchase.
Listen to some of the younger people involved in the news or read their articles, I often wonder if they graduated high school let alone college.
Look at our average test scores compared to the rest of the world.
All these things start adding up and although there are still many very intelligent kids coming out of our school system the overall quality of education in this country too me is pathetic.
“You can’t give students a grade lower than a C, because the parents would be upset.”
Exactly, the ole you can't do that to my kid mentality. Parent, Why's my son on the bench?
Coach, He's not good enough to play and needs to work harder to get better.
Parent, I'm calling my attorney, I'm going to get you fired, blah, blah, blah.
cont.
We can also blame teacher tenure run amok. Isn't it interesting tenure applies to public school teachers but not private? Also, someone please correct me if I'm wrong but tenure first took hold in CA - figures.
The list goes on but bottom line, Nancy is spot on with this letter. The only thing I would change, which falls on The Press is the title. It should be: Chasms in our education system.