Chulrins getting promoted to grades without being able to read is an old story. Still, I heard this on the morning radio:
These are seniors. Yet somehow they can’t write down something that is given to them. There are a few reasons for this. One of them involves a bell curve. The other is that they simply were not taught to read and passed along. Divemedic had a piece on this the other day. Teachers not allowed to fail students. Those that attempt get static from the administration and the parents.
One of the ways we humans learn is by failure. The other way is by shame. They’ve removed both from this scenario. Back in the day, you’d be sent back a grade. This usually happened in grades one or two, and it made sense. If a kid cannot read, write, and do basic math by grade three, they’ll struggle all the way up. In high school, there were a number in my class that had to go to summer school to get the credit to pass. Do it until you get it right.
The follow up to this story is that these students apply and get into college, then have to take remedial classes to catch up, if they even can. If they don’t earn a HS degree, they have to pay for a GED. But these students will get a diploma at the end of the year and then find they are unable to do any but the most menial jobs. Nearly all of the trades require you to read and think critically as well as use some sort of math.
Oh well. The world needs ditch diggers too, I suppose.
But this flows to every aspect of life here. From the mumble-mouthed idiot that gets your order wrong in the drive-thru all the way up to the clerk that screws up your referral to a specialist. This is why things can’t get done, and why they are get screwed up. We’re becoming visibly more stupid as a species.
There’s a lot of blame that can be handed to big education and the schools. But the parents have a role here too. We read to our kids from the time they were toddlers. By third grade, they were reading Harry Potter books. Nearly all of them could read, knew their ABCs, could write their name, and do simple addition and subtraction before they darkened the door of kindergarten.
It’s a mess. And it’s a sad day when they realize that what they thought was the hard part of life – school – was actually a breeze. The rest of life isn’t quite so understanding.
This was resonating with me this week as I go check out my classroom for faith formation. I volunteered again on the condition that I get a normal class like everyone else. Not 25 sixth graders. You can tell the ones that have gotten passed along as they have an attention span of a gnat. I came away last year with the notion that we are doomed if this lot were taking over.
We’ll see how it goes. It starts next week. I’ll start with my patented ‘you don’t have to be here’ talk. Seriously. Man up, tell mom and dad you don’t want to. You aren’t doing yourself of anyone else a favor by being here being a pain in my ass. There’s no rule that says you have to have this done this year. That’ll follow with what’ll happen if you disrupt the class. I’ll start off nice. Pay attention and behave, you’ll be among the first out the door. Act up, and we’ll go the full hour and fifteen minutes, and you’ll be the last to leave.
Up to you.
Inspected By Pat 
If I was a teacher, I would tell teenage students that their parents and community failed them. Education starts before they get to school. Teachers can’t do everything.
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