May 17, 2007
I was sitting on the throne today at work, and I came across a letter in the OpEd section from a woman who objected to students @ Dunlap being rewarded for doing well on a test, while students that scored below a certain level didn’t get to go. She felt that these students were being punished when they were “trying just as hard.”
Are you fucking kidding me? This is the exact reason why we have millions of shithead spoiled pricks running around between the ages of 15 and 40. People that say things like, “I quit my job because my boss was always telling me what to do,” and “I’m not working for minimum wage when I can pop 3 kids and make more money off of welfare.”
Let me tell you something, lady. Standardized tests in high school are not that hard. I don’t count the SAT or ACT in this group, as they are optional. If your child a.)Attends school regularly, b.) Does not use massive amounts of narcotics, and c.) Can spell their own name, they should be able to pass the test. Now, I’m not familiar with the standards that students are asked to meet in order to go on the Six Flags trip, but IMHO, it doesn’t matter. Since when is it wrong to reward students for performing at a higher level than their peers? When they get to the real world, do the lower scoring students expect a raise at their job because they “tried their hardest”? God, I hope not. If you try and don’t perform, you probably need to find another line of work. You can’t expect the employer to drop their standards to let the runt catch up.
Why are people so damn thin-skinned and sensitive anymore? These parents are so worried about their kids’ feelings getting hurt, they’re willing to risk their ability to survive in the real world for it? Does that strike anyone else as fucked up?
Pistons just won, they’re moving on to the Conference Finals. Wee.
May 17th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
[...] Malaise is a might … ticked off at the sense of entitlement youngsters feel these days: I was sitting on the throne today at work, and I came across a letter [...]
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Malaise,
I have mixed feelings about this issue. 1. I don’t understand why the school feels it has to bribe students to do well on the ISAT test.
2. I also think there is a privacy issue here. The school cannot release a student’s individual ISAT scores to a non-parent, yet the school is basically announcing which students failed. Isn’t the school concerned about the privacy issue?
3. School is not the workforce; you don’t “fire” students for lack of achievement. The school should use the results to help the student do better, not to punish the student.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I don’t see it as a bribe, I see it as a reward for performing well, in the same ilk as the monthly bonus check I receive at work for making certain goals.
I can see your point on the privacy issue. While the school isn’t allowed to release the specific score to non-parents, can they tell said non-parents whether a student passed or failed? While the spirit of the rule would forbid this, the letter of the rule may not make mention.
True, school isn’t the workforce. School should be preparing students for the workforce. I think demonstrating to students that they will be rewarded regardless of performance is a tad irresponsible. Providing opportunities before and after school for tutoring seems like it would be a better response than rewarding them just for “trying”.