I just returned from my daughters 4th grade honor roll awards ceremony.  However, it appears that "Honor Roll" is no longer allowed to be said.  Here's what happenend.

9:30 a.m.  Award presentation begins.  The asst. principal states that the children who's quarterly grades are comprised of A's, B's, and C's will receive an "Academic Achievement Award."  They are also handing out "Perfect Attendence" and "Citizenship Awards".

9:50 a.m.  My daughters' teacher goes up to present her awards.  With the first student she says "honor roll" and then the asst. principal leans in to correct her.  It's an "Academic Accievement Award".

9:52 a.m.  26 of the 30 kids in my daughters' class are onstage after having received their awards.

10:00 a.m.  The presentation is over so I go to talk to the teacher.  I asked her if there was any distinction between getting all A's as opposed to getting all C's.  She told me "there is in my classroom, but not at the school level".  And then she told me that the principal corrected her when she said "Honor Roll".


We took our daughter out of private school for this year due to financial reasons and I am regretting just about every bit of it.

Embrace Mediocrity - Support Government Schools.



I know what you mean.  My older daughter was in private school for K & 1st grade.  In second grade we tried the local .gov school.

After that experience, it was home schooling and private school for her and her younger sister all the way.

It's been a sacrifice, but a worthwhile investment in their futures.

I hope you get in a situation to go back to private school.

Have you considered home schooling?  That's another solid option.

I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about it, your daughters teacher appears to know the score.
Besides, it's not up to the school to pat your kids on the back for a job well done anymore, call it political correctness or not wanting to single out the mediocre kids or whatever.
If your kid did well, let her know and take her out for a well deserved pizza party or something along those lines.
Of course, I'm sure you know this already.

All C's= All A's = Academic Achievement Award.

Luckily, we didn't tolerate that kind of bullshit when I was in elementary school. For us, honor roll was B+ average or higher

sweet jeebus, did anyone watch john stossell's "stupid in america"??? holy shit, what a horrifying eye opener that was. they showed how even middle class suburban schools rated as a or b by parents just encouraged mediocrity. stossell showed that through grade school our kids are as good as or better than european kids in the basics. it isn't until you get to jrhs and hs that it plummetts and plummetts BAD.

The Fifth Column's agenda is moving along swimmingly it seems...

Literacy of College Graduates on the Decline

While more Americans are graduating from college, and more than ever are applying for admission, far fewer are leaving higher education with the skills needed to comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the relationship between blood pressure and physical activity, according to the federal study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The test measures how well adults comprehend basic instructions and tasks through reading -- such as computing costs per ounce of food items, comparing viewpoints on two editorials and reading prescription labels. Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as "proficient" in prose -- reading and understanding information in short texts -- down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient -- compared with 40 percent in 1992. Schneider said the results do not separate recent graduates from those who have been out of school several years or more.

[Bob Parr]It's psychotic!  They keep finding new ways to celebrate mediocrity.  But when someone is truly exceptional . . .[/Bob Parr]

A friend of mine had his daughter enrolled in the school's Soccer  program - "Scoreless Soccer."

I kid you not.  They didn't keep score because - you guessed it - didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Idiot adults.  Do they really think those kids don't know how many goals they scored!?  


CMOS

Quoted: I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about it, your daughters teacher appears to know the score. Besides, it's not up to the school to pat your kids on the back for a job well done anymore, call it political correctness or not wanting to single out the mediocre kids or whatever. If your kid did well, let her know and take her out for a well deserved pizza party or something along those lines. Of course, I'm sure you know this already.

Yeah...dinner at Chuck E.Cheese.  My personal hell.


Personally, I can't wait until they start applying this to other venues.  Such as the Olympics...

Congratulations!  Most of you have finished the race.  Here's your Pewter Medal of Completion!  Now, all of you stand over there on the stage so we can present them to you.  
And you, contestant from Azerbaijan, yes, the one that tripped and sprained your ankle and was not able to complete the race, get up there with the rest of the contestants so you can receive your Pewter Medal of Attendance.

When I debate these PC assholes who don't want to rate a kid in school or sports, I always get a blank look when I ask them how will that same kid will handle the real world where a boss quickly fires someone who doesn't measure up.

Seems that the same assholes who support this non-rating bullshit always seem to be feeding their payroll at the govt trough, i.e. no competition.  

If 26 of 30 got awards, just how would the 4 who didn't feel?  If they were trying to spare peoples feelings, they went about it the wrong way.  

It's because of the stupid parents who complain and sue that their child didn't get an award.  The schools have changed because society changed, not the other way around.

Quoted: I just returned from my daughters 4th grade honor roll awards ceremony.  However, it appears that "Honor Roll" is no longer allowed to be said.  Here's what happenend. 9:30 a.m.  Award presentation begins.  The asst. principal states that the children who's quarterly grades are comprised of A's, B's, and C's will receive an "Academic Achievement Award."  They are also handing out "Perfect Attendence" and "Citizenship Awards". 9:50 a.m.  My daughters' teacher goes up to present her awards.  With the first student she says "honor roll" and then the asst. principal leans in to correct her.  It's an "Academic Accievement Award". 9:52 a.m.  26 of the 30 kids in my daughters' class are onstage after having received their awards. 10:00 a.m.  The presentation is over so I go to talk to the teacher.  I asked her if there was any distinction between getting all A's as opposed to getting all C's.  She told me "there is in my classroom, but not at the school level".  And then she told me that the principal corrected her when she said "Honor Roll". We took our daughter out of private school for this year due to financial reasons and I am regretting just about every bit of it.

I graduated the public school system 14 years ago. believe me the public school system is a total joke.

Quoted: If 26 of 30 got awards, just how would the 4 who didn't feel?  If they were trying to spare peoples feelings, they went about it the wrong way.

Honestly, I think those 4 were out that day.  

Quoted: Quoted: I just returned from my daughters 4th grade honor roll awards ceremony.  However, it appears that "Honor Roll" is no longer allowed to be said.  Here's what happenend. 9:30 a.m.  Award presentation begins.  The asst. principal states that the children who's quarterly grades are comprised of A's, B's, and C's will receive an "Academic Achievement Award."  They are also handing out "Perfect Attendence" and "Citizenship Awards". 9:50 a.m.  My daughters' teacher goes up to present her awards.  With the first student she says "honor roll" and then the asst. principal leans in to correct her.  It's an "Academic Accievement Award". 9:52 a.m.  26 of the 30 kids in my daughters' class are onstage after having received their awards. 10:00 a.m.  The presentation is over so I go to talk to the teacher.  I asked her if there was any distinction between getting all A's as opposed to getting all C's.  She told me "there is in my classroom, but not at the school level".  And then she told me that the principal corrected her when she said "Honor Roll". We took our daughter out of private school for this year due to financial reasons and I am regretting just about every bit of it. I graduated the public school system 14 years ago. believe me the public school system is a total joke.

Hellfire, my kids don't even get grades anymore.  Just placed for needs work, meeting expdectations or exceeds expectations.  What does that mean?  Since htey do not expect my son to do any harder math than he was doing last year (and helping the other kids get it done) what the heck does it really mean to exceed such low expectations?

Quoted: When I debate these PC assholes who don't want to rate a kid in school or sports, I always get a blank look when I ask them how will that same kid will handle the real world where a boss quickly fires someone who doesn't measure up. Seems that the same assholes who support this non-rating bullshit always seem to be feeding their payroll at the govt trough, i.e. no competition.

VERY well said.

CMOS

My wife wants to home school the kids for similar reasons. Instead of the letter-grade system, they have a simple checkmark to signify 'satisfactory' achievement, and either a '+' or a '-' to show above or below average tendencies. It's all very PC.

The youngest one has a few math issues, but instead of directly addressing the issues, they are having her join a "math club" after school, with games and snacks.

I was looking at one of the kids' papers, and I noticed (and mentioned) the lack of red ink being used to grade them. I explained to the 10-year old about how they aren't allowed to use red ink any more because it would make kids feel badly about themselves if they got something wrong. She looked at me as if I were nuts.

I don't think it's about the children; I think it's about the grownups and feeling good.

Like I said, the wife wants to home school.

Quoted: Embrace Mediocrity - Support Government Schools. I know what you mean.  My older daughter was in private school for K & 1st grade.  In second grade we tried the local .gov school. After that experience, it was home schooling and private school for her and her younger sister all the way. It's been a sacrifice, but a worthwhile investment in their futures. I hope you get in a situation to go back to private school. Have you considered home schooling?  That's another solid option.

Depressing.

So, as a euroweenie who has no option along these lines, how do you carry out your home-schooling, do you teach them to the same curriculum as their peers in public schools(and tehn exceed it), do they sit the same exams at the end of high-school.

Hell if I ever get round to having kids I think we'll be doing lots of educating them at home on top of their public schools,

"scoreless soccer" How stupid, Kids can be some of the cruellest things on the planet (apart from cats maybe), no way they aren't keeping the score and taking the piss out of the losers at berak...

/PHil

Quoted: sweet jeebus, did anyone watch john stossell's "stupid in america"??? holy shit, what a horrifying eye opener that was. they showed how even middle class suburban schools rated as a or b by parents just encouraged mediocrity. stossell showed that through grade school our kids are as good as or better than european kids in the basics. it isn't until you get to jrhs and hs that it plummetts and plummetts BAD.

Publik skools: "Where the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average"

Quoted: A friend of mine had his daughter enrolled in the school's Soccer  program - "Scoreless Soccer." I kid you not.  They didn't keep score because - you guessed it - didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Idiot adults.  Do they really think those kids don't know how many goals they scored!?   CMOS

That might be an answer to overachieving  psychotic parents getting in fights, causing game stoppages, and beating their children for the score.  

Quoted: When I debate these PC assholes who don't want to rate a kid in school or sports, I always get a blank look when I ask them how will that same kid will handle the real world where a boss quickly fires someone who doesn't measure up. Seems that the same assholes who support this non-rating bullshit always seem to be feeding their payroll at the govt trough, i.e. no competition.

I work for the Federal Govt., and a lot of us feel the same way about the public who pay our salaries. Their votes determine whom we get for Congressmen, who appropriate/allocate our funds and decide our direction. (It's not the President, folks, it's Congress...)

They seem to be getting dumber and more misinformed and ill-educated every year. I wish I had a dime for every time some American comes to the North Bridge in Concord, MA, and asks, "So, did something important happen here?"

Quoted: So, as a euroweenie who has no option along these lines, how do you carry out your home-schooling, do you teach them to the same curriculum as their peers in public schools(and tehn exceed it), do they sit the same exams at the end of high-school.

Homeschooling is big here in the States.  There are several companies producing excellent curricula.  Virtually all states have home school support groups and advocacy organizations.  There is also a Home School Legal Defense Association, which steps in when the government tries to interfere with a parents right to educate their own children.

The .gov schools hate home schooling because

a) They hate competition

b) Home schooled kids excel academically.

Private schools, mostly church-run, are big here, too.  

Quoted: A friend of mine had his daughter enrolled in the school's Soccer  program - "Scoreless Soccer." I kid you not.  They didn't keep score because - you guessed it - didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Idiot adults.  Do they really think those kids don't know how many goals they scored!?   CMOS

[Lane Smith-D2: The Mighty Ducks] It's not worth winning if you can't win big!! [/Lane Smith-D2: The Mighty Ducks]

Quoted: The Fifth Column's agenda is moving along swimmingly it seems... Literacy of College Graduates on the Decline While more Americans are graduating from college, and more than ever are applying for admission, far fewer are leaving higher education with the skills needed to comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the relationship between blood pressure and physical activity, according to the federal study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The test measures how well adults comprehend basic instructions and tasks through reading -- such as computing costs per ounce of food items, comparing viewpoints on two editorials and reading prescription labels. Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as "proficient" in prose -- reading and understanding information in short texts -- down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient -- compared with 40 percent in 1992. Schneider said the results do not separate recent graduates from those who have been out of school several years or more.

I used to teach HS German, French and history, and got in hot water from other teachers and the principal for telling the kids that only kids who get all As should go to college, as mediocre people will eventually get shitcanned by the system anyway. That raised calls of "elitism" and howls of protest and racial epithets directed at me.

I taught state college, too, and found some real, utter morons in my classes, who didn't care and didn't want to learn, no matter what I did to accomodate them. I made the mistake, again, of remarking on it to other instructors, who got very upset. I had some students who did utterly nothing in class, rarely showed up, then whined when they got an F, saying they were going to lose their grants or welfare. (NO, I did not cave in to them.)

I had students, when I taught freshman French at that same college, who'd had four years of French in HS already. They just wanted an easy "A", and thought I'd give it to them. (And even told me that) When I told them they couldn't be in my class, they complained en masse to the Dean of Students, who DID cave in. The kids were the worst students, rarely showed up, and I documented everything they did, in case they complained. Half dropped out, the rest flunked. Some even dropped out of college. They were not motivated at all.

I taught German at a very well-known, posh private boarding school, which Welds, Roosevelts, Stuyvesants, Frelinghuysens, Saltonstalls and others have gone to for generations, and was told not to make my grading too hard, or it might lower my student counts, endangering my job and the "chair", or endowment-funded position, itself. So much for "rigorous" private school education.

The truth is, EVERYBODY wants something for nothing from the educational system. They want a cushy, well-paid functionary's job, indoor work w/ no heavy lifting, lots of vacation and perks, without having to earn it, because, Gosh darn it, we're entitled to it!

Let's make this simple okay?

So what if the school rewards mediocrity?  Every kids gets a gold star?  No big deal.  We the parents are the ones that count when it comes to helping our kids learn.   Let the dumb dumbs have the gold stars.  My kids get no kudo's for stars.  They are EXPECTED to bring home GRADES, not stars.  We review their report card together every time, post in on the refridgerator.  They know what is expected.  

1.  It isn't the school that matters so much as the STUDENT.   Exception to the rule is if you are stuck in a crummy - a very crummy school district.    

2.  A student will learn if she/he has actively interested and supportive PARENTS.    Be a Good parant and the kids will perform fine in just about any public school.  

3.  If you are stuck in an inner city school district, get your kids into the honors program.  Push them to study, push them to perform.  Even crappy schools have "special classes" for kids that WANT to learn.

Bricks and glass, books and chalk don't detemine a child's achievement.   It is the child's PARENTS mostly.  Private schools are NOT necessarily better educators, rather they get kids who's parants push them and help them to learn.  

This isn't rocket science.    Good Parents put a value on Studying.  Provide a set study time and study space (a little work desk/table, the kitchen table)  That reminds me - I will turn off the computer and the TV for 60 to 90 minutes from 7:00 PM to 8:30 every school day.    

Quoted: Let's make this simple okay? So what if the school rewards mediocrity?  Every kids gets a gold star?  No big deal.  We the parents are the ones that count when it comes to helping our kids learn.   Let the dumb dumbs have the gold stars.  My kids get no kudo's for stars.  They are EXPECTED to bring home GRADES, not stars.  We review their report card together every time, post in on the refridgerator.  They know what is expected.   1.  It isn't the school that matters so much as the STUDENT.   Exception to the rule is if you are stuck in a crummy - a very crummy school district.     2.  A student will learn if she/he has actively interested and supportive PARENTS.    Be a Good parant and the kids will perform fine in just about any public school.   3.  If you are stuck in an inner city school district, get your kids into the honors program.  Push them to study, push them to perform.  Even crappy schools have "special classes" for kids that WANT to learn. Bricks and glass, books and chalk don't detemine a child's achievement.   It is the child's PARENTS mostly.  Private schools are NOT necessarily better educators, rather they get kids who's parants push them and help them to learn.   This isn't rocket science.    Good Parents put a value on Studying.  Provide a set study time and study space (a little work desk/table, the kitchen table)  That reminds me - I will turn off the computer and the TV for 60 to 90 minutes from 7:00 PM to 8:30 every school day.

Let's make this simple as well.

The point of the original post was to point out the rewarding of mediocrity.  Nothing in the post comments on the whether or not the school is a good school or not or whether the student is challenged.  It goes without saying that the parents are the key when it comes to things such as this.

My contention is what if you received your yearly perfomance review and on a scale of 1 - 5 (5 being the best) you earned a 5.  Well, John, the dipshit, 3 cubicles down from you earned a 3.  And you both get the same raise.

Quoted: I taught state college, too, and found some real, utter morons in my classes, who didn't care and didn't want to learn,

You should've heard MY rant when I had a prof who grouped us together in class & graded each group rather than individuals!!!!!    

Needless to say, he won't forget my loud ass!!!!!  GD liberal faggots!!!!  Group grades!!!!!