A world without F's
Document 029.0.0.5 # 7
Michelle Malkin
A world without F's
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/printmm20020619.shtml
School's out. What did your children learn this year? Across the country,
one poisonous lesson was pumped into the systems of self-esteem-inflated
students: There is no such thing as failure. Christine Pelton, a now-famous
former biology teacher at Piper High School in Piper, Kansas, resigned last
month when her school board -- pressured by angry parents -- refused to
support her flunking of nearly 30 students who plagiarized. Two lesser-known
teachers also refused to play along with the education establishment's
dumbing-down games. They tried to give out F's, too. Their reward for
showing children that slacking off has consequences? Humiliation,
intimidation and litigation.
Erich Martel, a history teacher at Wilson Senior High School in Washington,
D.C., issued an F last year to a girl who took his Advanced Placement U.S.
history course. It was enough to prevent her from graduating. But when the
school held its commencement ceremony, there was the student -- strolling
across the stage in her cap and gown.
Martel checked the school's computer system. The student's grade had been
boosted to a D. "It was a feeling of being sabotaged, a feeling of being
undermined, that for reasons that have nothing to do with the student's
performance, there are shortcuts around a teacher's legitimate grade,"
Martel told The Washington Post last week. And he wasn't alone. Martel
discovered at least 11 cases in which students' grades were raised without
the knowledge of his fellow teachers.
One student earned a D, which her father protested because his daughter
"needed a high grade-point average" to go to college. The teacher relented
and gave the student a chance to retake the final exam. Her score was even
lower. The teacher kept the original grade. But Martel later discovered that
it had been changed to a "P" (for "Pass"). "I could not believe it," the
overruled teacher, Anexora Skvirsky said. "I am absolutely alarmed. It is
uncalled
for. It is intolerable. It's like cheating. It's like lying. It's like
fraud." Like?
As for those responsible for altering the grades, the D.C. schools are
sending a consistent message: Screw up, move up. The assistant high school
principal who changed the grade of Martel's student is now a principal at an
elementary school in the district. And Wilson High's former principal, who
also altered grades, is now an assistant superintendent overseeing the
city's high schools. She justifies the grade changes because they were
"unfair."
"Unfair" is the same gripe that came from the parents of a high school
senior at Sunrise Mountain High School in Glendale, Ariz. When their
daughter flunked a required English class, which she needed to pass in order
to graduate, Mom and Dad did the natural thing in a no-consequences world:
They hired a lawyer.
In a missive that would make the parody writers at the satirical newspaper
The Onion blush, attorney Stan F. Massad demanded that teacher Elizabeth
Joice "take whatever action is necessary to correct this situation so that
it can be settled amicably. Failing that, you will force us to institute
litigation." Massad claimed that his client "has been very sick, unable to
sleep or eat and she has been forced to seek medical attention. To say that
she has experienced Severe Emotional and Physical Distress over this matter
is an understatement."
Turning up the sob-story volume, Massad bemoaned: "The student was all
ready to graduate and, now, at the eleventh hour she is told that she will
not. As you know, the student is on the Student Council and she was looking
forward to speaking at the Graduation Ceremonies. It is certainly a shame
that this young lady's life has now been ruined forever." (The full text of
the bullying letter is available at
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0611lawyerletter-ON.html.)
The Arizona Republic reported that just hours before her graduation last
month, the student was allowed to take a retest --over Joice's objections.
The student passed the retest and got her diploma. Life, she has learned
from her litigious parents and obsequious school officials, is one big
do-over.
Whiny parents wonder why public schools have abandoned standards, forsaken
accountability and adopted appeasement as their primary educational mission.
Oh, who could be to blame for such an abysmal abdication of responsibility?
Who?
029.0.0.5 # 7 End.
"I do verily believe that a single, consolidated government would become the
most corrupt government on earth." Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1800.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the
argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves." William Pitt speech to the
House of Commons.
"You shall have one world government, whether or not you like it, by consent
or by conquest." Former FDR aide, James Warburg CFR/TC, in testimony before
the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 17 Feb 1950.