Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Only Way to Fail is to Fail to Try


Is it just me or have we completely lost sight of what's important in this country? I'm talking about Texas' school systems most recent attempts at forbidding teachers to give grades lower than a 50.....and in some cases, no lower than a 70!! Thank goodness there is legislation pending in Austin that will put a stop to this ridiculous notion.
I understand the argument posed by those who want to make it impossible for students to fail. I'm sure it's true that students who continually receive failing grades are more likely to drop out of school. I'm sure it breaks their little hearts every time they receive a low grade so immediately they take to the streets, dealing drugs and killing innocent folks. Here's the problem. It teaches them NOTHING about dealing with failure. And what difference does it make whether someone is receiving a failing grade or receiving a passing grade, but still not grasping the material, or God forbid, LEARNING something?
Is there just one among us who has never failed at something? If you haven't failed, you've never lived. Sure it felt bad when you failed, but you picked yourself up and started over, right? Please tell me you picked yourself up and started over or it's gonna ruin this entire argument.
Let me share a little personal background on this. I was born and raised in a very small town in Nebraska. I went to a small school. I didn't move around. I stayed in the same school system from K-12. I had two loving parents who stayed together. I had two brothers. I could walk across the street to go hiking or hunting and either walk or ride my bike a mere mile or two to go fishing for catfish and carp. I went sled-riding in the winter, had tons of friends in my neighborhood, and literally, had a Leave-It-To-Beaver-type of upbringing. I really didn't face any kind of adversity.....ever. Sounds too good to be true. It sounds great and it was. But there's a catch.
When I reached adulthood and got out on my own, I learned that people DID actually have real-life problems. I was shocked! The first time I had to deal with something that didn't go quite my way, I had no idea how to handle it. I've been learning the hard way for the last 30 years. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing to complain about really. But life has been a little more like swimming upstream because I didn't develope the tools in childhood.
My point is this. Childhood is the BEST time to learn to deal with that stuff. Yes, I do indeed think it would have been better if my early life hadn't been quite so rosy. Today that's what we're trying to do with our kids. We let everyone make the soccer team. Everyone gets to be cheerleader. You can go to tryouts for the dance company, but no worries......everyone gets in!We won't let our kids fail and they HAVE to learn what if feels like or adulthood is going to slap them in the face and hard!
I'm amazed that the people we pay to educate our kids were ignorant enough to come up with the idea of not letting our children fail simply by lowering the standard. Where do we get these people? Speak up. Join the PTA. Call your State Senator. But help make them wake up. It's ok to fail. It really is.
Here's an idea. Let's TEACH them something.

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