Re: Administrators changing seniors grades!
Posted by history teacher on 5/18/08

On 5/17/08, BMorePeachy wrote:
> Wow - I really didn't expect for my post to become a debate
> on the relevance of the public school system! I must admit,
> that I do agree with many of the arguments presented, and I
> appreciate hearing everyone’s opinions - but I still can't
> bring myself to believe the 'just pass them' mentality, or
> that high school is primarily a 'waste of time'.

The history of high school is this - it was not required until
the Great Depression. Our society made high school mandatory in
the 1930s to keep young people from competing with older folks
in the workplace for the very few jobs there were at that time.
High school was not intended then to be preparation for the
workplace - it was mandated to keep young people out of the
workplace.

How quickly we forget. Once it was the case that when you
passed colleges' individual entrance exams, you were admitted to
the college. At age 12, or 14 or 16 or 26. The structure of
secondary education as we now have it is very new - it does not
date back in time and the purposes we attribute to it might be
imaginary. Not every experience in life is purposeful or necessary.

My own son left high school and entered college after 11th grade
- yes, it's entirely possible. How does he manage to function
now as a physician without having gone through the experience of
12 grade?

We think inside the box as they say on this matter. It's hard
for teachers to consider the idea that any moment of what we're
doing is 'pointless'. It's not. But neither is it essential -
there can be and long have been other pathways through life than
'high school'.

School as we not have it is not working everywhere. School as
we designed it was never intended to take the stresses placed
upon it by an increasingly alienated youth. Our inner cities
are now very different than they were even 40 years ago. We can
be angry about all of this of course but after the anger then what?
>
>
>
> I do think that our public high school system needs to be
> drastically altered - giving students more options for
> vocational training, but we have what we have right now. Part
> of high school is training for life in general and no matter
> what job you have in the future you must 1)show up
> (attendance) 2)Finish tasks presented to you 3)Do your
> assigned task as completely and well as possible 4)
> Communicate with your bosses and coworkers - teamwork
> These are all components of school that directly correlate to
> the workplace or college.
>
> I just can't let myself believe that high school is
> pointless. I believe that you get something from every
> experience you have - the more experiences the better. This
> is why I'm so upset by a student who shows up 70 days out of
> the school year for 4 years in a row and is allowed to walk
> across the stage at graduation with his classmates that
> worked their a**es off to actually learn. I just don't get it.

Posts on this thread, including this one

• Administrators changing seniors grades!, 5/15/08, by BMoreTeacher.
• Re: Administrators changing seniors grades!, 5/15/08, by Rodeo.
• Re: A question. , 5/16/08, by L. Swilley .
• Re: Further on this interesting case , 5/16/08, by L. Swilley .
• Re: NCLB, 5/16/08, by LbP.
• Re: A question. , 5/16/08, by What????.
• Re: NCLB, 5/16/08, by Rodeo.
• Re: A question. , 5/17/08, by ACP.
• Re: Thanks, ACP, 5/17/08, by L. Swilley .
• Re: Administrators changing seniors grades!, 5/17/08, by Sara.
• Re: NCLB, 5/17/08, by to Rodeo.
• Re: Further on this interesting case / completely agree, 5/17/08, by Sara.
• Re: Thanks, ACP, 5/17/08, by ACP.
• Re: Further on this interesting case , 5/17/08, by I agree.
• Re: A question. , 5/17/08, by To ACP.
• Re: A question. , 5/17/08, by ACP.
• Re: Administrators changing seniors grades!, 5/17/08, by BMorePeachy.
• Re: Administrators changing seniors grades!, 5/17/08, by think of the workplace.
• Re: Administrators changing seniors grades!, 5/18/08, by high school English teacher.
• Re: This very interesting and very important thread, 5/18/08, by L. Swilley .
• Re: A question - tracking students early on , 5/18/08, by BTrack.
• Re: Administrators changing seniors grades!, 5/18/08, by history teacher.
• Re: This very interesting and very important thread, 5/18/08, by history teacher.
• Re: This very interesting and very important thread, 5/18/08, by BMoreTeacher .
• Re: Administrators changing seniors grades!, 5/18/08, by history teacher.
• Re: This very interesting and very important thread, 5/19/08, by Catsister.