The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Are Students Coddled? Schools Get Rid of ‘F’s
By EMILY FRIEDMAN
abcnews.com

[...]

Superintendent Bernard Taylor told ABCNews.com that the “H” stands for “held,” and is a system designed to give students a second chance on work that was not up to par.

“I never see anyone doing anything but punishing kids,” said Taylor. “If the choice is between letting kids fail and giving them another opportunity to succeed, I’m going to err on the side of opportunity.”

Students in Taylor’s district can choose to retake the course, do extra work online or decide on a different remedial action with their teacher.

But if the work has not been rectified within 12 weeks, Taylor said the student will still receive a failing grade.

At one Boston area middle school, a policy known as “Zeros Aren’t Permitted” gives students who do not complete their homework on time an opportunity during school hours to finish so that they do not fail the assignment.

[...]

Alan Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University, believes that schools that veer away from giving children the grades they have earned – even when it’s a zero or an “F” – aren’t doing anyone any good.

“Children aren’t going to gain from ambiguous information regarding their grades,” said Kazdin.

“The fact is children are failing yet we don’t want to call it that,” said Kazdin. “It’s this whole notion that everyone’s a winner and everyone gets a trophy.”

Kazdin argues that children are perceptive enough that they will eventually realize they aren’t doing well in school whether teachers give them “F”s or not, and that hiding their true level of achievement will only confuse them further.

“The task is to change the reality, not the labeling of it,” he said. (more…)

And ladies and gentleman, this is state of the world around us. Stating the obvious now has to go through the PC chamber to remove anything that offends anybody.

It is this type of treatment that has put me in recent years in a position of skepticism when it comes to stories about inner-city public schools who miraculously managed to boost grades. This places me in a very uncomfortable position because your typical narrative-driven critic is quick to conclude that somehow you don’t think highly of your own people. On the contrary, the opposite is true.

In my experience coupled with the experience of teachers I know in the public school system, what greatly contributes to grade improvement is not more bureaucracy, but when parents, grandparents or guardians are in constant contact with teachers. By “contact”, I mean 2-way communication–not just the teacher initiating the conversation.

My mistrust in drastic grade improvement has nothing to do with the kids at all. Instead, it has everything to do with a system that will stoop to anything to justify its existence–even lowering standards. When jobs and money are linked to student performance, people will do anything to save their own skins. Never mind the damage this is doing to our own young people.

I am tired of the dumbing down of our children and the folks who feel they need to keep it going in order to prove to others they are sensitive.

Your sensitivity is what’s keeping these kids in a perpetual state of dependency.

In the meantime, stuff like this should not be considered a mystery~

Minority scores lag on teaching test