No Child Not Mediocre
Feb. 10th, 2005 21:37![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillKudos to This Is True:
A school spelling bee in Rhode Island was cancelled because the district believed that the competition conflicted with the standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act. (It was later reinstated by the new superintendent, who seemed to feel a little differently.)
Their argument: "a spelling bee does not meet the criteria of all children reaching high standards." It creates "winners" and "losers", you see, which is to be avoided; this is one of the main points of the No Child Left Behind Act, which seeks to make sure all children succeed. I note that the same reasoning has eliminated team sports in many elementary schools.
I recall one of the biggest disappointments of my grade-school years... I participated in our school district's Young Authors Project for two years, submitting hand-bound books in sixth and seventh grade. The first year I netted an award -- tied for second, I seem to recall. The prize that year was a little certificate, and the choice of any two books I wanted from the book bins, which were stuffed full of new young adult fiction. I had taken home "The Dark Is Rising" and another one the previous year, and was looking forward to rummaging through the bins again.
The second year my book was considerably better (as I had learned quite a bit about making one), and I expected to do well. I was quite dismayed at the awards ceremony, when they announced that there were no individual awards: we would all be given little medals for our participation, because our hard work had made us all winners.
It wasn't that I hadn't gotten a ribbon or anything to hold up as proof that I was better than anyone else... it was that, by lumping all of us together, they had done just the opposite of what they set out to do. Instead of making us all feel like winners, they made me feel like I was just another generic kid. All that effort to make the best book I could, and the only acknowledgement I got was a pat on the head and a platitude.
This is why, when I come across items like this, I know exactly how the kids feel. It's not just the bright ones, who feel like they're being lumped in with the average ones -- it's the average ones too, who feel like they're never given a chance to show that they're anything other than average. And when kids lose that chance to shine, everybody loses.
A school spelling bee in Rhode Island was cancelled because the district believed that the competition conflicted with the standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act. (It was later reinstated by the new superintendent, who seemed to feel a little differently.)
Their argument: "a spelling bee does not meet the criteria of all children reaching high standards." It creates "winners" and "losers", you see, which is to be avoided; this is one of the main points of the No Child Left Behind Act, which seeks to make sure all children succeed. I note that the same reasoning has eliminated team sports in many elementary schools.
I recall one of the biggest disappointments of my grade-school years... I participated in our school district's Young Authors Project for two years, submitting hand-bound books in sixth and seventh grade. The first year I netted an award -- tied for second, I seem to recall. The prize that year was a little certificate, and the choice of any two books I wanted from the book bins, which were stuffed full of new young adult fiction. I had taken home "The Dark Is Rising" and another one the previous year, and was looking forward to rummaging through the bins again.
The second year my book was considerably better (as I had learned quite a bit about making one), and I expected to do well. I was quite dismayed at the awards ceremony, when they announced that there were no individual awards: we would all be given little medals for our participation, because our hard work had made us all winners.
It wasn't that I hadn't gotten a ribbon or anything to hold up as proof that I was better than anyone else... it was that, by lumping all of us together, they had done just the opposite of what they set out to do. Instead of making us all feel like winners, they made me feel like I was just another generic kid. All that effort to make the best book I could, and the only acknowledgement I got was a pat on the head and a platitude.
This is why, when I come across items like this, I know exactly how the kids feel. It's not just the bright ones, who feel like they're being lumped in with the average ones -- it's the average ones too, who feel like they're never given a chance to show that they're anything other than average. And when kids lose that chance to shine, everybody loses.
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Wow...
Date: 2005-02-11 06:35 (UTC)We had an intense discussion in my Social Problems (Sociology course) about this -- that federal intervention/assistance is settling for mediocrity because federal programs aim to include the largest number of people to benefit from their services. The federal system does not acknowledge the individual needs of people or smaller groups of people in circumstances of variable degrees.
Federal assistance is like a big band-aid. It staunches the bleeding but doesn't tend the wound.
And if a local government was worth its salt it would recognize this immediately and minimize federal assistance as much as possible.
But then again, people would have to act like a community. I wonder what that's like... people acting like a community. I vaguely remember something about it when I was younger but haven't seen anything like it in years. *wink*
YT.
Re: Wow...
Date: 2005-02-11 18:07 (UTC)I have to wonder whether, in this specific case, simply having the fad psychology shift again would put a stop to it. A couple of studies that say that lumping kids all together stifles self-esteem, or that competition in a friendly environment helps them... Most of us know this in an empirical sense, but authorities pay more attention to studies. I just have the feeling that pop psychology is what got us here, and having it reverse itself again might kill the movement.
Wishful thinking, maybe.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-11 07:38 (UTC)(2) check out http://www.livejournal.com/users/projectsw3igart/13176.html, or more specifically, the thread http://www.livejournal.com/users/projectsw3igart/13176.html?thread=46968#t46968 . the whole thing is a riot, but what struck me as relevant to your post is:
UT-Austin has a serious problem in admitting people that academically don't deserve to be there because of Texas's "Top 10% Rule." Basically, if you're in the top 10% of your high school class you can get into UT-Austin (although it's not quite that easy now that they have to accept so many people, and they're looking to revise it). The only problem is Texas is FULL of crappy high schools, and the top 10% of those schools is basically the "cream of the crap."
Meanwhile, there are very high performing schools with bright students who get rejected because UT doesn't have the space to admit many more people after fulfilling the top 10% law.
and the folks who think the above is a good idea, are the folks who push "no child left behind"... who are willing to violate separation of the state and the press, to do it.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-11 14:32 (UTC)LCD* Theory. Regardless of how you attempt to legislate equality, all beings are still NOT created equal.
-M
*Least Common Denominator, not Liquid Crystal Display, though that could be interesting...
no subject
Date: 2005-02-11 17:59 (UTC)Whatever you may think about the armed forces as a whole, the machine that drives them is not ideal.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-11 15:55 (UTC)Needless to say, we were very dissapointed.
"Harrison Bergeron"
Date: 2005-02-14 08:07 (UTC)It's not a long read, and it is an important view of taking the "everyone is gifed" notion just a little too far.