Are Students Coddled? Schools Get Rid of 'F's

Are Students Coddled? Schools Get Rid of 'F's

abcnews.go.com

At public schools in Grand Rapids, Mich., high school students will no longer receive "F"s but instead will earn the letter "H" when their work falls woefully short.

Superintendent Bernard Taylor told ABCNews.com that the "H" stands for "held," and is a system designed to give students a second chance on work that was not up to par.

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Lets just teach these kids that the real world is going to cater to their every need. I cant wait to see when these children graduate and realize that their school has done nothing to prepare them for the real world, and is only create more inept children. People are constantly making school easier, letting children get dumber, and then when thats not enough, they go ahead and do something like this. How does telling children they get second chances for everything help? I failed 9th grade in high school and guess what, it made me realize that I need to get my butt in gear, and I did. We are setting these children up for failure with rules like this.. I really hope more schools do not adopt the same grading system.

When kids fail, they should fail. No second chances. Thats what the WHOLE YEAR is for. If you are doing bad, you have more then enough time to bring your grade up to par. And lets face it, school is NOT that hard. I am scared to see what tomorrows youth brings to the table... which I can see a whole lot of inadequacy and unpreparedness.

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by deadline527


I have a serious problem with this. My 14 year old son slacks off all trimester, then makes everything up in the last two weeks just to get his grade up to passing. This is his third year pulling this crap, and I no longer know what to do about it anymore. The teachers insist on letting him make up the homework, rather than failing him to teach him a lesson.

They do use the same system, but they might as well, because that's about what they are doing. He lives with me 50% of the time, and lives with his mother the other 50%, his mother lets him pull this crap, and he's allowed to play video games, watch tv, and pretty much does whatever he wants. I take everything away, in hopes that it might matter, but he just figures that he only has to stay with me for a few days and goes on about his life, blaming me for his failures.

The Ashwaubenon School District has even come up with a new grading system, whereas homework doesn't even have to be done right. It just has to have something scribbled in to look like it's done, and it gets a 100% grade, just because it's turned in. They expect that children will be graded mostly on projects and tests, yet by not grading homework, they give the student nothing to learn from.

I'm really sick of the way kids have to be pampered these days. They know that you can't do anything, and they use it, threatening to tell the teacher, or call the cops. I don't agree with beating kids, but they really need a good swat on the rear to make them fear you. The schools don't help either, they don't offer any advice other than "well take the fun stuff away, and use it for a reward." How the hell is that supposed to work when the kid doesn't care.

Sorry to mix my vent in there, but the school system offers me nothing but high blood pressure.

Just another prime example of the politically correct crowd going haywire.

Instead of focusing on changing the "F" and explaining the "H", they should be teaching these kids how to make "A's".

Their time would be better served.

Students are absolutely coddled.

Let me give you some of my dad's horror stories. He teaches college at the graduate level and the majority of his students are in their 30s and 40s.

It is not uncommon for his students to make profound gramatical and spelling mistakes even on their final drafts. Some of them insert text shorthand!

They seem to display a genuine lack of maturity, for example asking for extra time to complete an assignment because they have a job.

Some of them outright plagerize. Occasionally students have turned in papers with parts of them copied straight off of Wikipedia or with hyperlinks still in blue.

The worst part is that they act entitled to these shortcuts and seem to feel that they have been violated when they are asked to follow the rules.

Mind you, this is graduate courses, which means they have been allowd to get away with it up until then... so yes, I'd say they are coddled.

Originally posted by deadline527


Lets just teach these kids that the real world is going to cater to their every need. I cant wait to see when these children graduate and realize that their school has done nothing to prepare them for the real world, and is only create more inept children.

Uhm... schools don't prepare kids for the real world and never have. Schools aim to prepare kids for the work force. Which is hardly the real world.

People are constantly making school easier, letting children get dumber, and then when thats not enough, they go ahead and do something like this.

Did you ever stop to think that schools are just making it more difficult to learn? It's difficult to learn when you don't have F's. It's difficult to learn when most the teachers can't think for themselves, or need to retire.

Schools today are not designed to teach, they are designed to babysit mostly. Unless you are lucky enough to be in a school system with lots of funding. Then they actually care about learning.

If schools were designed to teach, and cared about results, then they would pay better wages to attract better teachers.

How does telling children they get second chances for everything help? I failed 9th grade in high school and guess what, it made me realize that I need to get my butt in gear, and I did. We are setting these children up for failure with rules like this.. I really hope more schools do not adopt the same grading system.

School sucks in general. They are just switching it up trying to find something that works. But unless they are teaching children to think for themselves (which ain't never happened), then they aren't really teaching them anything.

When kids fail, they should fail. No second chances. Thats what the WHOLE YEAR is for. If you are doing bad, you have more then enough time to bring your grade up to par. And lets face it, school is NOT that hard. I am scared to see what tomorrows youth brings to the table... which I can see a whole lot of inadequacy and unpreparedness.

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Yep, and where do the youth learn from? Parents, teachers and peers.

The issue is that parents believe their children should learn everything in school. But schools only provide the skeleton. Parents MUST teach their children.

You know what my son does during the summer? He has projects. I make him read history books and give me reports, write stories and read them to me. Summer vacations are always an educational experience.

When the bulk of your childs education occurs at school, then you are just asking for trouble.

Eh. Why not. Pretty soon all kids will get the SAME grade. After all, kids are no longer allowed to be winners and losers at sports. Its all about being fair and avoiding kid's feelings being hurt!

reply to post by asmeone2


I'd argue that it's not the students who are being coddled, but the teachers.

If you get rid of F's, there is no way to measure the result of the teacher.

Teachers should be fired when they don't perform well, and given raises when they do. Until that occurs, expect more of the same.

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
reply to post by asmeone2

 

I'd argue that it's not the students who are being coddled, but the teachers.

If you get rid of F's, there is no way to measure the result of the teacher.

Teachers should be fired when they don't perform well, and given raises when they do. Until that occurs, expect more of the same.

Agreed, then maybe the teachers would try harder to make sure the students are making the grade.

We need to start burning down these government 'learning' centers and shooting the heads of teachers unions.

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
reply to post by asmeone2

 

I'd argue that it's not the students who are being coddled, but the teachers.

If you get rid of F's, there is no way to measure the result of the teacher.

Teachers should be fired when they don't perform well, and given raises when they do. Until that occurs, expect more of the same.

It is probably both.

It's hard to find people that will be teachers nowadays, I'd imagine this is school districts cutting down on the ones they have to let go for poor performance, this would also boost their funding.

Originally posted by asmeone2

They seem to display a genuine lack of maturity, for example asking for extra time to complete an assignment because they have a job.

I wouldn't say its lack of maturity, sometimes extra time is needed when your'e working 48 hours a week, doing an NVQ level 3 and 10 hours of college.

Sometimes it's damn hard to meet deadlines under that kind pressure.

The educational bar just got lowered yet again while the rest of the world goes zooming by.

Are High School kids using crayons now?

Our system is based on meeting a preset goal. If the student reaches that goal (which is very low) early then he or she is allowed to stop learning until non acheivers are remediated to meet the goal. This means all students meed the minimum goals and only the minimum goals.
These goals are not academic but behavioral based goals. Herd mentality goals. The herd is safe and to leave the herd is heresy.
Our system used to be outcome based. This meant that every student was allowed to excel as far as he or she was capable of doing. This meant that the student body represented a broad range of abilities from very basic to exemplary. These were academic goals. Everybody was different. Everybody was meant to do their own thing and think for themselves. Individual achievement was good. Individual success was success for society.
America has created a huge herd of sheep. Only the elite and wealthy are meant to be individuals. They are the wolves.
Do you know what the wolves are having for dinner?

Find whoever did this and shoot them with a nailgun....in the face.

Sometimes when a student gets an f it is not because the teacher is a bad teacher, it is because the student is stupid. Sometimes, especially these days where we have taught our youth that they can just get by, you have a whole class of stupid kids, or even a whole school. Why? because not enough emphasis is put on education. The only people that put it on education to the degree that it should be are some RESPONSIBLE parents, and teachers. So let's just screw the future leaders of this country and let them all squeak by. Afterall, even just a crappy c average student should be able to run this country perfectly without a hitch these days.....Oh wait.

Best teacher I ever had was my history teacher. And I love history still.

His grading system was every test had 3 to 5 questions. Every question counted as a seperate test and showed up on the report card as a seperate grade.

The true kicker was, he only knew 2 grades for tests, a 0 and a 10.

With that the guys that did bad in history had reportcards full of 0's.

Guys like me had #loads of 10's.

The US education system is way to much influenced by whining parents that rather give their kids real grades that show they are stupid or not then to give them an honest education.

Everyone keeps slamming the school system, and ignoring the real problem.

I think the idea of holding grades and allowing kids a second chance is not a bad idea. If they can't pass then, the H turns to an F, right? I was once close to dropping out and had missed 2 quarters of high school and was about to start at a new school where the principle showed me how he could still get me to graduate on time, and take some classes that I'd like. I quit a week later, and never went back, but I did appreciate the offer.

I think giving some of today's teenagers an F might make just depress them and make them turn all negative and moody, and possibly put them into somewhat of a downward spiral. It reinforces their "F it" attitude. I applaud the system for trying something innovative, even if it may not work out.

Lets look at the real problem here.....that no one wants to own up to....as usual. THERE'S TOO MANY KIDS!!!! Don't you think we could manage this a whole lot better if there were a lot less kids? The system doesn't have the answers, it's doing what it can given the circumstances. I don't necessarily agree with the system(I am a drop out after all), but hell you gotta try and do something.

Stop having kids...problem solved in one generation...done.

Originally posted by fred3110

Originally posted by asmeone2

They seem to display a genuine lack of maturity, for example asking for extra time to complete an assignment because they have a job.

I wouldn't say its lack of maturity, sometimes extra time is needed when your'e working 48 hours a week, doing an NVQ level 3 and 10 hours of college.

Sometimes it's damn hard to meet deadlines under that kind pressure.

Sorry but at the graduate level that isn't an excuse. They know the deadlines months in advance and at that age they should know better than to take on more than they can chew anyway.

reply to post by asmeone2


I'll guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. My current load is 12 credit hours of grad classes, teaching 2 sections of a Freshmen intro to Econ class, and working 20 hours a week tutoring. I'm busting my ass to keep a scholarship and make sure I come out of grad school with as little debt as possible. Granted I've never asked for an extension out of sheer procrastination, but still.

As for the original topic, I started a thread awhile ago about how my hometown was shutting down two academically talented high schools and how school districts cater to the bottom of the curve rather than the top, and this is another example.

This guy shares my EXACT viewpoint..

www.youtube.com...



This guy always says it best...
Hilarious, and true.