We only have ourselves to blame. Baby Boomers, that is.
We were the progeny of the Greatest Generation, but growing up in their houses, with their rigid rules and endless chores, our folks didn’t seem like the greatest.
They seemed heartless when they sided with teachers over us, when they doled out corporal punishment for lackluster report cards or told us “you can’t sing, get over it” when we wept because we didn’t make the school chorus.
So when we had our own kids, we coddled them in ways our tough-love parents never imagined.
The every-player-gets-a-trophy culture was created because my generation couldn’t stand to see our dejected kids stand empty-handed at the end of the sports season while the gifted athletes took home all the hardware.
Our parents told us to try harder if we wanted to win. We told our kids that winning didn’t matter.
So why are any of us surprised to learn that schools are taking ever squishier approaches to grading in order to protect today’s students from feeling like failures?
We started it. This is simply the next level.
Now it’s teachers – not students – who are cautioned about the damage a zero can do to a grade-point average. It’s teachers who are urged to let kids take and retake tests until they get a good grade. And it’s teachers who are pushed not to deduct points for late work, lest one of their charges become discouraged and give up.
I first wrote about this trend 11 years ago when Pilot readers learned that Norfolk and Virginia Beach teachers were quietly being pressured to give partial credit for missed assignments, lest slackers learn what a zero does to a grade-point average.
Trouble is, some teachers still award zeroes. Others don’t. That’s not fair, say some parents, so Virginia Beach assembled a task force to draw up recommendations for a more uniform system.
Unfortunately, instead of raising standards and demanding personal responsibility from students, the committee is leaning in the feel-good direction of making the system more forgiving.
In an interview Thursday, Beach school chief Aaron Spence reminded me that no decision had yet been made about possible changes. He noted, however, the “reality across the nation” is that failing grades don’t motivate students.
Zeroes are a big part of that.
The question facing educators, Spence said, is “How do we mathematically mitigate the zero?”
Gee, I don’t know. Change the laws of mathematics, perhaps?
Here’s an idea, by someone without a Ph.D.: Why not spend a day at the beginning of the school year showing students how a big fat zero averaged into mediocre grades will transform a barely passing student into one who’s failing?
Next, assure the children that if they complete all their assignments, they won’t have to worry about zeroes.
That’s old-school thinking, apparently. In its preliminary recommendations, the Beach committee suggested awarding several sets of grades. One for classwork. Another for work habits, which might include homework and reports.
As if one has nothing to do with the other.
Look, schools are supposed to do more than simply help students master the material. They should also be prepping kids to be responsible adults.
Turning in a book report on Friday, when it’s due, is the first step toward understanding how important deadlines are later in life.
After all, rent not paid on the first of the month tends to make landlords super cranky. And a casual approach to car payments will generate an encounter with the most fearsome person in town: the repo man.
Workers who graduated from no-zero institutions will be shocked when they get sacked by bosses who expect them to turn in all their work. On time. All the time.
It’s one thing to wring our hands over what’s going on in education. It’s another to acknowledge who it was that set this troubling table.
Us.