On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 2:44 PM, Bob Blakely <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 1. The mandate of any school system, public or private, is to > EDUCATE our children. > 2. The level of education MUST be such that our children have what > is necessary to compete in the REAL world. > 3. It is NOT the job of ANY school system, public or private, to > "adjust the truth" concerning student performance to meet some local > curve chosen using rather dubious assumptions. > The standard is the REAL world. > 3. After the students graduate, they will automatically be judged: > - in the community, - in their search for higher education, > - in their school of higher education - if they can get in, > - in their competition for employment, - in their > performance on their job > by a curve that represents not just their community, but the > entire country and also the best of many other countries. > 4. It's just not ethical to cheat students, their parents and their > community out of a realistic assessment of their preparedness for > adult life. > 5. FYI, the REAL curve is often bimodal. > > The result of cheating students out of a real assessment of their > preparedness for life is to fill the world with dependent fools. The just > desert for those who cheat them and for those who abet in this > process is to later be governed by the fools they've created.
Do you really think that school prepares students for "the real world"? I've known idiots who still graduated with outstanding marks. I've known people who barely got through school (or didn't!) that have succeeded mightily in the "real world". While "real marks" may in some way, in some cases, be predictors of performance in the workplace, the fact is that school grades or class ranking only give HR execs something to hang their hat on when their hireling fizzles: "Hey, he was top of his class, great GPA, who knew he'd swindle the bank for millions? Please don't fire me, I covered my ass!" cheers, frank the cynic -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
