The atrophy of education: Wichita Falls, Texas

For those of you who have felt your spleen close to rupturing watching your kid play t-ball, you might want to pop a few Tums before reading on. T-ball comes to the classroom.

In Wichita Falls, Texas, the superintendent, Dr. Tim Powers, believes that the grading practices that have launched this nation, practices that held children to an objective standard, are "toxic and counterproductive" (article here). A better methodology?

"...we should give the student as many opportunities as the student needs, within the parameter of the time constraints in which we are placed."

Ahhh-huh. For a minute, I thought first grade would last twelve years. Let me get this straight. So that means rather than drawing an objective line and making cuts based upon that line, teachers, beyond the instruction with which they already fill the day, need to concentrate on those who don't get it to the detriment of those who have long since mastered the material. The lowest common denominator drags the train??

Imagine if the teacher invested the extra time (you know, the twenty-fifth hour in every day) in the students who got it. What would happen if we nourished the excellence? Nope. We don't want to make kids feel bad by sending them to special ed. classes if they struggle, and we sure don't want to damage their psyches by administering discipline to the ruffians. No more thwack on the posterior and now no more thwack on the fragile self-esteem.

“Grades should reflect the content learned, not whether they learned it the first, second or third time. Will this require additional effort on our part as educators? ... ‘Yes,’ and it also aligns with doing whatever it takes to help students achieve the mastery level we desire for them”

Additional effort?!? Herculean! But notice where he puts the onus. The load crushes the teachers. This has become standard in our expectation of government. We abdicate our responsibility and demand performance from the government. Dr. Powers (ironic name, by the way) places little demand upon the student to learn. Whenever! In so doing, he foments the welfare cripples that suck the marrow out of our nation, folks who condemn the government for their station in life. It's the bailout mentality. It's wrong, and it's destroying our nation.

Teachers teach. Good teachers identify and encourage the stragglers and identify and push the motivated.

Students learn. Those who refuse to learn should be dealt with in one way and those who struggle to learn should be handled in another. Neither should encumber the class.

Parents. Where do we fit in? How have we prepared our children to meet the challenges of their educational experience? The engaged parent will ensure their children learn. They will be the first to advocate holding them back or to seek special education. They will be the first to allow or enforce discipline when necessary.

For those parents who have to labor within this type of T-ball educational system, you will have to challenge your own kids because the teachers will already be far over-spent. God bless us all as we train up our children in a land that less and less holds its individuals to account.

For those who live around Wichita Falls, Texas, you've got the T-Ball World Series (read about it here). Write your newspaper. Write your school board. And vote (!) when it comes time for that. Here's hoping you can wrest the Titanic's helm from the captain before its ill-fated doom. Implementation district wide is set for Fall 2009, a mere six-months away.

(Tip of the hat to Chekov for calling the article to my attention)