On the other hand, what's up with this?



"I'm not saying schools aren't responsible for educating our children. Indeed, they are. However, so are parents. If students don't know who is going to be at their house each night, or whether there is going to be food for supper or breakfast, or what might be going on to affect the mood of the home environment, how can we expect them to concentrate at school? I've learned of unstable environments so incredible I'm amazed the students even come to school. Yet they do because school is the positive, safe place to be. Retention would turn school into yet another negative place with punishments even if a student were doing the best that he or she is capable of. Retention would definitely do a great deal to our schools and our students - increase dropout rates, cause more funding and class size problems, lower the self-esteem of those students who are already struggling, drive a larger wedge between schools and home. It has absolutely no positive effect on our schools or our students."



I can distill the whole argument into two contrasting philosophies: those who focus on results vs. those who focus on the process. If we want our kids to have a "positive, safe place" to be but are not really concerned whether they actually achieve a certain level of proficiency, go with Ms. Biedenbach's premise. But if we want to be sure our kids are truly learning a particular skill, such as reading, we have to test them. If they didn't learn, we have to go through it again until they do learn.



As far as dropout rates are concerned: most dropouts are perfectly capable of doing the work. They simply have other priorities. Are we truly looking at making school less challenging and more entertaining to meet this lowest common denominator? Don't worry about making the kid work, and for heaven's sake don't challenge the kid to rise above his or her environment. Instead, be amazed the child came to school at all. Perhaps we could hold a little "thank you for choosing our classroom" ceremony to really boost the self-esteem?



I do agree with some of the ideas she proposes: "Let's do something to help bring parents and schools together as a team to work toward the success of a student. Don't just send papers home explaining what's wrong or even how to make things better. They typically don't make it out of the desk or backpack. Pick up the phone. Talk with each other." Fine, then let's see how they do on the test. If they don't pass, let's do it again, only better. There's no reason to rubber-stamp kids through to make them feel good about themselves.



The entire job of being a parent or a teacher is to prepare a child to function in the adult world. The adult world is not very concerned whether or not you feel good about yourself - even the self-help book industry doesn't give a damn except for wanting the money you fork out in an effort to raise your own self esteem. It does, however, care whether you can read, write, and add. To instill a false sense of accomplishment while failing to pass on the skills necessary to make it in the adult world undercuts the entire purpose of the school.



See the full fisking on Cedar Pundit.