Today is the day where all teachers can breath a little easier, at least those in my district. Today grades were due and the fifth grading period came to an end. Thus begins the last grading period of the 2010-2011 school year. This comes as a little bitter sweet for me. I look out across those faces and think that they are not quite ready for the real world. The harsh realities of college and the workplace for all of them are looming closer and they are the gazelle awaiting the lion.
The requests for us to slack off have increased by quite a bit now that they know the fifth grading period is over. Why do anything? Well the answer is quite simple. AP tests are coming up, and TAKS is right around the corner. For my Astronomy class, who does not have TAKS or AP tests, the answer is even more simple. College and life does not allow you to slack as you near an end. Life does not let up, and neither do I. Perhaps this is an idealistic way of thinking that the kids will never truly appreciate, but none the less I will stay the course.
I had an idea about how we could kick these kids in the butt. To prepare them for the inevitable. My idea was simple. Get the Seniors to take a day of college level classes and then test them over it. I approached my principal about this, and his response captures the issues that we face. He said that even if we bring someone in to give a lecture that it would have little effect this late. We would be going through an exercise that would not help them if they are having trouble passing their classes. Of our about 400 seniors that are set to walk in May, 68 of them are at risk of failing.
Think back to your senior year. For quite a few people it was a time of enjoyment and low requirements placed on them by school and by their parents. You were to get to college or to your next step. Parents remember the low stress times of their senior year. They tell their kids that this should be a year of fun and exploration. That mentality does not really work anymore. Kids have to take more and more now to graduate. Four credits are required in each core class now, and that means that the former requirement that had seniors take government, economics, and English their senior year is a thing of the past. It has turned into a requirement that sees them take 5 required classes to graduate out of the seven that they have to take. This is the first year that this has been required and it has been a tough transition. The paradigm shift has resulted in one of the highest senior failure rates that we have had in a long time. We have seniors that do not understand these requirements. The represents a problem. We must press on, and prepare them for the future. The end of their senior year is coming, but their adult life is just beginning. My hope is that the kids that are failing understand that there is currently a way out, and that way out is work and determination.
There is not an easy solution to this system. My solution is not a popular one. As Spock said "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one." These kids have to learn a hard lesson so those that come after them can learn it. They may have to go to summer school, but better learn the lesson in the safety of high school than be the gazelle in the lions mouth.
Until Tomorrow,
"Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don't know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it."
-- Sir William Haley
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