Aspiring to be average?

Hello all!

It appears as though there has been some positive response to may last two posts, so I will now go off on a new rant, which might be a touchy subject for some (especially if you have school age kids).

It is time to talk education. Primarily, not from a kids standpoint, but from a more honest and politically incorrect point of view, do you not agree? That point of view will be mine. I know that there are some of you out there might harbor some of the same view as I. Those in the general populace that do seem to be more concerned with other peoples feelings or how they will react to what is being said. That is to say that they do not want to rattle the cages of the overly sensitive because it deals with their “precious wittle kiddies”. I say, give me a break! Stop acting stupid and demand more from yourself.

Ok, I digress… I will now hit the education factor now:

Recently, there has been a rash of proud parents displaying their son’s or daughter’s academic prowess in public. Yes, I mean our all time favorite “feel good about yourself” “look at me” attention grabber the “My child is an honor student at elementary, high school, primary” bumper stickers. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with that. There is no problem with that at all. It is just that these stickers are seemingly given out like candy on free samples day at the Nestle factory. It truly appears that these “awards” are given to children just for showing the hell up for class. I am not saying this as opinion. Not hardly. I am stating these as more of truths than mere musings of someone who is not informed. So now you are asking for proof? Ok. I think I can provide that for you.

I was in my son’s third grade class recently. After speaking with the teacher for a few moments, I learned that her opinion of current academic curriculum, she felt, was lacking in some areas. She invited me to stay and sit in on the class. This gave me the opportunity so actually see what is being taught and how well the children are receiving the information. What I saw and heard over the next several hours was physically nauseating and offensive to my “delicate sensibilities”.

One of the first things I noticed was that the teacher was speaking Spanish to one of the students. At first I found this to be odd and thought that this was done as a matter of convenience between lessons. Wow! Clearly, I was mistaken when this continued throughout the day. I was left with no choice but to inquire about this. I was told that the child did not speak much English and needed to be mostly instructed in Spanish. Let me see if I get this straight. Each of the lessons to be done in class must first be explained in English to the bulk of the class and then in Spanish for this poor simpleton, whose only fault was to be born into a family who does not feel like learning the language?

I started to worry that this would affect the pace of the class learning. Sadly my fears did not go unfounded. This slowed the class down greatly. The most amazing this about this is that fact that people accept this as the norm.

So, for now I leave that alone and start to focus on the actual material being taught. Uhh… Ok… You are kidding me right? No… Quit yanking my crank! You guessed it. The material being taught was nothing short of damn near remedial pre-k. That is correct ladies and gentlemen, in this third grade class they are still counting on apples and bananas. Now I find nothing wrong with this, assuming that these diagrams are being used as a reference point or visual aid for a new lesson, but these are the actual lessons. Once again, I cannot stress this enough. People, demand more from yourselves. I know you have it in you.

This inevitably, brings me to this point. Now you have a child who can count apples and bananas faster than the rest of the class, clearly they must be gifted let us make them “honor” students. Wow! They are really smart! No they are not. If you bothered to take the time to look you will see that they are not truly gifted. They are bored and are looking for work more befitting to them.

Here is the problem with that. You have a group of children who could not find their rear ends with two hands and a flashlight. Inexorably, a group of adults who do not want to hurt the children’s feelings and whom, through some divine intervention (the literary term for this is Deus ex machina) managed to gain access to a committee that should be chaired my logical intelligent people, decide that the intelligence standard be set at slightly above cucumber. What then happens is only logical. A student who shows any aptitude for academia is then considered “gifted” and placed in a “gifted” class. Here too I had the opportunity to sit in on the class…

What I discovered here was nothing short of … **Hand slaps forehead, while images of Homer Simpson run rampant through my head**. You know what I mean.

What the “gifted” class is not is more advanced work. Basically the students in this class are “rewarded” for their aptitude by being given more homework. The work is exactly the same but the pace has been picked up a bit so as to give the parents the illusion of being advanced, when in fact this is average or par type work.

It is at this point that the awards for “honors” students are being given out. Really, I think that we are all selling our kids and ourselves a bit short.

So the next time you see a “my child is an honor student… blah blah”, I suggest the decal read “my child can count to 20 without removing their shoes”. There is no reason to be proud of academically average kid. Be proud of that child who goes into school and gives it their all, one hundred percent of the time. You do not need a sticker to tell you that. Competition in academia is a great thing. Your child should be made to keep up instead of having the standards lowered due to lower ability. Do not let your emotional shortcomings hold up everyone else.

That’s all I have to say about that

Ryzyn