100% Chance of Failure

It’s no shocker that I get a little annoyed by the Clarksville School System shutting down at the first hint of snow.  Not even a hint…  A rumor.  An idea. The mere thought!!  Boom, they close!  Are they that keen on taking snow days?  Do they long for a good old fashioned snowball fight? No, I’m afraid the reason they are so skittish about having school in bad weather is not so innocent.  And this actually highlights an issue that I have with the education system as a whole.

For those who know me, its no surprise when I say, I think the 100% graduation philosophy is a bad one.  I actually think it’s a move in the WRONG direction.  Yes, the wrong direction.  Think about it. What is so special about “earning” (using that word loosely) a diploma, if any fool can get one for sitting in a seat for 12 years?  The problem is that an education has become a right.  And not just the way it was when I was growing up. When the right to an education meant that it was available to you, you had to decide what you were going to do with it.  Now it seems children (and parents, most of this issue is with them, but that’s another rant…) believe that not only is an education a right, but a diploma is as well!  And it seems to go even farther than just a “right”.  They feel (and unfortunately, so do the folks running the education system) that they are entitled to it, no matter what. 

I don’t know how such “educated” people as those who run the school systems can be so blind (read-dumb), that they don’t see what a slippery slope they are on.  If your goal is 100% graduation, that means policy is going to be created to make that goal a reality.  What does this mean?  It means you can throw discipline out the window.  If you are trying to graduate 100% of the children (whether they want to or not) then you can’t expel, suspend, or punish your students.  At the pace of classes today, teachers and administrators have no recourse in matters of discipline, if a student misses any time in class, they will fall behind quickly.  Making it more likely they will need to be held back, making it more likely they will drop out by the time they get to high school because they will be older than their peers.  See where this is going?  I do, it’s not pretty.

So, the teachers just have to make it through each day and then pass the entire class up to the next grade level, whether or not they can do the work.  And why didn’t the teacher make sure they knew how to do the work, you might ask?  Well, they were too busy focusing on the one or two behavior problems in the classroom to adequately instruct the other students who were actually there to learn.  If we can’t get the behavior problems out of our classrooms, then ALL of the children will suffer.  Education is not a right, IT IS A PRIVILEDGE!  One that has been taken for granted by parents and subsequently, their children.  Too much of the pressure is being put on the teacher, without giving them the tools they need.  They don’t need new teaching techniques, computers, or books.  Those things are great, but real learning is not going to take place until the educational system gives teachers back their most important tool.  Discipline.

Ok, so how is this related to snow days? It illustrates the point that if every student can’t be in class, then no students will be in class. Do I want children being bussed unsafely on ice covered streets? No, of course not.  However, just as it should not be only the school system’s job (or the teachers) to make sure the child is learning, it should not be the school system’s job to make sure the children can make it to school.  If most of the city streets are clear, have school! Those whose parents truly want to invest in their children, will get them to school.  I promise it is possible to drive in snow.  People have being doing it as long as cars have been around.

I think my thoughts on this topic are best summed up by Syndrome from Disney’s The Incredibles: “And if every-one’s super… no one will be”.  So, take a risk CMCSS.  Go to school when the roads are a little slick.  See who shows up.  Those are the kids who will be the leaders of our community years from now.  Expel a few kids every now and then. Help the teachers take control of their classrooms by removing the troublemakers.  Do that, instead of rewarding misbehavior with a diploma for sitting in a chair for 12 years.  Make the diploma mean something.  Make it stand for hard work, intelligence, and discipline.  If you do that, people won’t care what our test scores are, or how many students graduated. They will be in awe of the caliber of human beings that this county has produced and all the great things they will do.