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Outside Harry Dewey Fundamental Elementary School in Fair Oaks, Amanda Christensen recalled the first time she saw the detailed report card for her three children.
“At first it was very complicated,” Christensen said. “You see all these new things and you don’t understand quite what they mean.”
Case in point: Her kids are now graded on their level of grit.
“What does my child have to do to get a grade in that?” she wondered.
Across the state, report cards are undergoing a sea change in how students are measured for academic performance. Where teachers once graded students on traditional math or English skills, they now judge attributes such as grit, gratitude or being sensitive to others.
Our public school system is becoming an international laughingstock. Other countries teach skills, things like math and science. We teach "grit". I think our schools are being dumbed town to the level of the administrators.
I heard that they make 4th graders watch "the notebook" and if they don't cry they fail the class. Once the class is failed you must watch "ol yeller" at least once a month for the next year until the appropriate amount of tears are expressed.
I am still lost trying to understand the idea behind the common core curriculum (even after being explained 100+ times). Our area is considered among the better NY school districts, and the failure rate double across the board. I can only imagine struggling districts in NYC. So maybe to cover this epic failure they are trying to introduce "new and creative" grading?
I didn't understand why everyone was so upset about common core until I saw some of the math problems...and now I get it. We're doing a terrible disservice to the kids who are learning that stuff and don't have parents who have the time, ability, and inclination to supplement their education.
Honestly this sort of nonsense is nonsense but whatever, it will just end with teachers giving everyone an A and moving on. The real problem with common core is a focus on mnemonics and mental shortcuts so that the kids who aren't good at math can do the basics while even mediocre students fail to learn the basic knowledge and instincts that are so helpful when doing upper-division math or quantitative work (it helps to just *know* the answer to basic arithmetic and figure out how numbers work together organically rather than just memorizing specific shortcut manipulations -- and yeah I know complaining about both too much and too little memorization is inconsistent, but there is both a proper time and place for each). It's like a failed version of tracking where you design a class for the bottom rung of students, but then dump everyone in it.
A bit cheesy yes, but it's a start towards a worthy idea.
That is, requiring our school system to teach students about life, and not just books.
I went to a very elite high school and look back at my college years as that of a completely helpless child with no idea how anything in life really works.
That is not a default disposition via age, or a function of bad parenting IMO.
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