So I got side swiped today with a comment from one of my administrators.
She's been rather hostile towards me about my grading system all year. Last semester, she sent me routine emails that said, "Please send me the list of assignments you have scheduled this week and the date you think you'll have them graded."
I obliged because, well, what the hell do I care? I'm tenured. She wasn't being up front with me about why she needed them, and I didn't feel like playing the "I'm a woman so I'm going to make you chase me for the answer" game.
So today, we have a meeting with all 9th grade teachers about grades. The same administrator proceeds to harangue us for having inconsistent grading systems. One teacher bases their grades off of homework and classwork. One teacher is predominantly tests and quizzes. One has a large percentage of projects. One has 1500 total points. One has 400.
Now, I understand the need for some form of unity across the board. Perhaps unity isn't the right word - communication and transparency between teachers is probably a better description.
It helps for me to know how they are being graded in their history and science and math classes. It helps me to know how other English teachers grade. It doesn't mean I have to convert to their system; however, it does mean that I have to use that knowledge for the benefit of my students.
Here's where the bullshit came in: "Your job is to get these kids from 9th grade to 10th grade. That's it. Nothing else."
Drop cup. Hold the phone. Get the fuck out of here.
My job is to get the kids from 9th to 10th grade? I thought it was to teach them literature and grammar while assessing their progress.
Apparently, I thought wrong.
"We have far too many failures for the 9th grade class. It's obvious some of you are either trying to hinder their success or are clueless to how your grading system is failing them."
Failing them? Teaching every day and providing numerous opportunities to take quizzes and tests while rewarding their efforts in class with small grades? That's failing them?
"This changes now. The grading system all of you have been using? It's in the trash. We're going to provide you with the total number of points your should give and how much homework, classwork, and tests will be worth out of those points. You have to understand that kids who drop out often drop out because of their failures in 9th grade. We have to make sure they move into the 10th grade feeling confident in themselves."
So it's a self-esteem issue?
The result of this meeting was to say that tests and quizzes are worth much less. Homework was worth some. Classwork the most. Kid doesn't do the work in class? He can make it up for homework. No penalties. No criticism.
"Because the purpose of the classwork is for them to complete it. It's not an assessment."
This has been an ongoing process since I started teaching, and from what I've been told, it started when NCLB was implemented. I read a recent blogpost about how the public education system is setting itself up to fail and be privatized. I'm for privatizing education, but the process shouldn't involve screwing over an entire generation of kids.
I've also noticed that as the government has grown so has the micromanaging in schools. Standardized tests have become the norm. They're more important than teacher lessons and assessments. And worst of all? They never reflect poorly on the students. Always the teachers.
This isn't limited to just grade school. A local university a few years ago implemented a "Freshman Alert System." Professors have to turn in the names of struggling students and those who actually fail classes are provided with counseling, tutoring, and opportunities to turn themselves around.
Guess what? It didn't stop there.
This year, the same university added the "Sophomore Alert System" in addition to the freshman one.
I imagine it will be provided for all students within a few years, and I'm certain that my assumption is correct when I assume that other schools have also implemented this type of help system.
Why? Why the need to constantly help the students and coddle them to the point that they are convinced they didn't do anything wrong?
And where the hell is this going?
I know there are discrimination laws and gender laws and race laws and disability laws. I have no doubt that in the near future, we will see employers be forced by the government to give new employees 2nd and 3rd and 4th and nth chances to do their job correctly. Tenure - thanks public education! - will be provided for everyone.
Because coddled little Johnny grew up to be coddling-required Johnny and was used to always being corrected when he did something wrong or didn't do something out of laziness. So employers will be required to provide an "alert system" for their employees.
Think I'm crazy? Think I'm jumping too far off the bridge? If you're old enough, go back twenty, thirty years. Ask yourself back then if you could imagine a girl in the 10th grade being given 14 days to do assignments and infinite chances to pass a test within a nine weeks all because she has low self-esteem. Because that's not hyperbole. That's reality. That was a student on my roster last year.
So what better way to protect the perception of the economy and the perception of the jobless than to take away the right of the employer to fire under performing employees?
Where else could this go? I mean, I'm surprised the government hasn't thought up the bright idea of forcing employers to hire people.
"Have x amount of money? Make an x amount of revenue and profit? You must employee n amount of people. By law."
What better way to control the citizens than to micromanage its economy?
What better way to micromanage the economy than to hogtie the employers and emancipate the oppressed employees who just needed a little wittle extra help?
What better way to create the oppressed employees that desire the extra help and the Big Daddy Government's Protection than by manufacturing them in public schools?
Just get them to the 10th grade. Just get them on the factory line. Just get them to the point where they are semi-productive and meet the lowest, most basic standard you can provide. Then it won't be the government's fault that the economy is tanking. It'll be the employer's.
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