How’s
this for crazy…. In Nashville, Tennessee the school board
has decided to do away with the posting of the names of
students who make the honor roll or who have achieved some
level of academic excellence. They no longer have academic
pep rallies and are thinking of canceling the State
spelling bee contests as well. No longer are the names and
papers of students who excel hanging in the school
hallways.
The reason? Well, posting the names of the students who do
well or who show high levels of achievement tend to
embarrass the students who do poorly or who fail in their
studies.
Mr. Steven Baum, the principal of Julia Green Elementary
school in Nashville says…. and I quote…”I discourage
competitive games at school, they just don’t fit my view
of what the world should be.” He thinks the honor roll
should be terminated altogether for this reason…”The
rationale was, if there are any children that always make
it and others that don’t, then there is a very subtle
message that was sent.”
Well, duh. You suppose?
I don’t about you, but yesterday my family along with a
large portion of the world watched a sporting event called
the ‘Super Bowl’. You may have seen it. It was a contest
between two National Football Teams who both wanted to win
the championship.
One of these did win, and the other one lost. Obviously we
as Americans have done a terrible injustice to those poor
fellows who lost. I’m certain they are just as traumatized
as those children in Nashville who make lousy grades. How
dare we declare a winner? How dare we name someone World
Champion? How dare we reward hard work or perseverance to
your chosen craft or field of endeavor?
What a sad commentary on our ever-growing trend to dumb
down America. While we are scratching our heads and
wondering why we are losing thousands of jobs and millions
of dollars to other countries that are striving for upward
mobility in education and lifestyle improvements, we have
lowered the bar for excellence so far it drags the ground.
Instead of saying to our youth of today “Be all that you
can be” we are saying to them….”Be all that you can.”
Mediocrity is fast becoming our national standard. It’s ok
if you’re illiterate and ignorant; you put in your time
going for twelve years…here’s your diploma…good luck. Who
needs grades, anyway? They just make those who don’t try
appear bad in the eyes of those who do.
Since we are no longer encouraging excellence in our
students, we can expect to continue to fall behind other
countries who place a high emphasis on higher education
and testing. Our industrial and manufacturing base is
shrinking on a daily basis, and we are fast becoming a
service economy. What good does it do the youth of our
country to strive for…or work at obtaining a college
education if the only jobs they will be able to secure
include the phrase…”Do you want fries with that”?
I hate to tell these poor misguided people in Nashville,
but the world doesn’t see things through the same kind of
glasses as they do. This practice which is spreading
across this country of not wanting to offend for fear of
embarrassment to those who don’t try will only come back
to bite us in the …you know where.
Students who want to make it and who want to excel will
continue to do so whether any school district likes it or
not. These will be the groups of kids who untimely go on
and succeed in the corporate world. The dumbing down of
America will only result in a further separation of the
‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.
Most likely, those who have the education and the grades
will end up working in or for those countries that value
excellence and hard work. You won’t find many CEO’s of
Fortune 500 companies coming from a background where some
teacher or school board told them that it was all right if
they wanted to believe that two and two could equal five.
