"Failure is impossible for High School Students! (No Really!)" A news article about the grade system

[shticks]

That is still a matter of effort, not intelligence

No. Some people simply cannot learn as well as others. It has nothing to do with effort in their case.

Your argument would suggest we can all be heart surgeons, but we just don't try hard enough.

Why aren't you developing the cure for cancer or explaining black holes? Is it that you're not trying hard enough?

Sorry to pick on you.... but alas your elitist attitude on this subject rubs me the wrong way.

Case in point. My mom never finished high school as a teenager. And has been diagnosed with dyslexia. But here she is in her late 40's with a BA majoring in philosophy and extended minors in English and art history.

ALOT of it has to do with effort and commitment. Anyone who thinks otherwise is ignorant.

Okay. So go figure out the cure for cancer and AIDS.

Save a billion lives.

Then get started on traveling to Mars.

Glad to see you chose to ignore my point.

 

[shticks]

I understand that is how life works...... but what i am also trying to say is that failure is in the eye of the beholder. if someone ends up working at walmart and is happy with it... is that failure? If you really want something for yourself... and you work hard to achieve it...... you only fail if you fall short of your own aspirations.

Look at society today. we have all sorts of unintelligent people succeeding and thriving. Most of those people on the jersey shore are blathering idiots.... yet people eat it up and make them rich and famous. They live with the same quality of life as a surgeon would. perhaps better?

High school is just a stepping stone.... and there are collages up here that accept "mature" students regardless of their high school grades. Just so long as they can pass certain tests to prove their knowledge.

Uh oh..... now all of the sudden .... someone who dropped out of high school is on equal footing as someone who got A's and B's all throughout highschool.

 

[schroing]

In the workplace, when I do well, I get paid, promoted, etc.

In school, when I do well, I'm complimented by people that I don't truly respect (and often find myself losing many benefits, such as time with friends, with even less visible gain).

Just wanted to throw this out there. School appears to lack meaningful rewards, and hardly anything is done to fight this conception. When I did geometry, for example - a required class for all students - I had a very hard time believing that I would ever draw upon any of the information I was learning except for in other classes, ultimately leading to nothing gained.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Canadian Schools have had the Incomplete grade since a long time ago instead of the F. Even post-secondary institutions use it.
Although in post-secondary (or at least BCIT) there's a lot more incentive for not getting an I because getting one results in a failure of the entire course year.

 

[Saxm13]

I'm technically an idiot and i'm in 2nd year university. That's gotta count for something.

=P

 

[thahat]

snip!

yes but, thats what learning IS. a chore.
okey, SOME things are naturally interesting to a person, and those things this person will gladly and automatically learn if given the means, the rest, is just so much more balony XD

also, linear system of grading, what, you mean like here in europa? 1-10grades with decimals 5.5 or higher =pass 10 for a perfect, 1 for a making it the bigest cockup in history

never did get why the americans use such a funny system, or even order of having schools XD

You may think learning is a chore, but it doesn't have to be. Humans naturally want to explore the world and understand it, and it should be the school's responsibility to nurture, encourage, and inspire this desire and to provide as many means of doing so as possible (teachers, books, computers, ect.). I love learning, but I don't like school, because it turns learning into a chore. Sure, not everybody is going to be interested in everything, but if they understand the basics needed to function, then I don't see why they should be required to go any farther. Why is if I want to go into a career that is completely unrelated to math, I still have to take higher math classes in high school and college? Because they want me to be well rounded? Sure, there's nothing wrong with being well rounded, but not everybody is good at everything, and being required to take a bunch of classes that are unrelated to what you want to get a career in, so you can get a piece of paper that lets you pursue that career, is absurd.

What I mean by linear grading is how grades are basically a narrow pathway from "fail" to "perfect." You could, for example, be extremely good at working with other people during the hands-on, labs and experiments in chemistry class. But when it comes to taking tests due to anxiety, remembering all of the details and information, and other things, you are terrible. Your grade, however, wouldn't necessarily reflect that reality, and instead would balance out to about a C (75%, average), or maybe even a D (60%, below average) since we are seeing a growing focus on testing in the American public school system. According to the grading system, you are basically the same as a person who may be average in both aspects of the class.

because in general usefullness terms, you might be.
plus, who looks at grades anyway especially those kinds of school grades, higher education is what counts, at least here in europa, dont know bout you americans ofcourse

 

[thahat]

In the workplace, when I do well, I get paid, promoted, etc.

In school, when I do well, I'm complimented by people that I don't truly respect (and often find myself losing many benefits, such as time with friends, with even less visible gain).

Just wanted to throw this out there. School appears to lack meaningful rewards, and hardly anything is done to fight this conception. When I did geometry, for example - a required class for all students - I had a very hard time believing that I would ever draw upon any of the information I was learning except for in other classes, ultimately leading to nothing gained.

this is soo much how i think about this stuff, i had a finnish clasmate a small while ago though, he told e that in finland you get payd to go to school. i liked that a lot XD wished i was finnish.

 

[ace_of_something]

I admit I didn't read the article but if this school is in the USA... or anywhere else really.

They're basically doing what the 'no child left behind act' does. Just in a more overt way.