| Dallas Public Schools: New Leaders in Entertainment |
Recently, the Dallas Public School system implemented a new grading policy intended to ensure “fair and credible evaluation of learning—from grade to grade and school to school.” Here are the key points in this plan:
I don’t teach in Dallas, but I am a public high school teacher of nearly twenty-five years, and I can tell you that similar policies are creeping into school systems across the country. Soon, I believe, these blueprints for teaching students to ignore—or even celebrate—mediocrity and failure will become commonplace practices in our nation’s public schools. For the politically naïve (and yes, the shaping of school policy is ultimately political), here is why every student must be forced to “succeed” on paper: It’s because public schools can’t tell the truth. And the truth is that as a society, we are becoming incapable of raising children to be responsible adults. The reasons are deep, systemic, and will probably not change for at least a few generations. In the meantime, schools must continue to lie to the public as long as the public keeps lying to itself, because the alternative would be political suicide. We have educated our children to be excellent consumers—and not much else. Soon, we will see the full fruition of these, our true values, as a society. Not only will our kids have neither the skills nor the patience required to run the infrastructure of our country, they will also lack the emotional maturity to understand or learn from their failures. So I offer this piece of advice to the Dallas Public School system—and any other school facing similar problems with student failure rates: You’re off to a good start, but keep up the momentum. Inevitably, students who flunk tests will want not just a second chance, but a third and a fourth. Give it to them. Eliminate the grade of “zero” on any assignment. Award academic points on tests for simply showing up at school. Create an “action plan” for each individual student depending solely on his tastes and interests. For example, if a student cannot master simple addition and subtraction, then allow him to draw an impressionistic picture of mathematical operations. If a student doesn’t like reading, let him watch television and then perform an interpretive dance of what he’s seen. Lastly (and most importantly), MAKE SURE THAT EVERY STUDENT GRADUATES. Put on a lavish show for the graduation ceremony, the gaudier the better. Parents and kids love graduation. They like to scream and holler and take pictures and videos of the grand event. It means absolutely nothing—or soon will—but that’s not important. What’s important is the appearance of achievement. In the end, appearance is all you’ve got to work with. So make it count. You’re in show business now, Dallas Public School system. Give the folks a good show. I’ll be retired from public school teaching in less than two years. It’s just as well. I don’t have a flair for tap dancing or the guts to be part of a criminal conspiracy to violate the public’s trust. Donald Gallinger is the author of The Master Planets Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites               
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