Opinion

SILK PURSES FROM SOWS' EARS

After reading the AJC’s editorial rebutting the “old retired teacher” (Too Quickly Dismissed dated ------), I felt compelled to respond. Before I present today’s lecture, the reader’s homework is to “Google” the terms normal distribution curve (sometimes called a Gaussian Distribution, or the Central Limit Theorem) and standard deviation as they apply to people, and be able to define them. These concepts address the fact that large groups will always include people with all kinds of abilities.

Prior to Governor Miller, Georgia had three high school tracks: Basic, General, and Accelerated. Then the Governor, in his magnificent wisdom, did away with the Basic degree as it was a “Degree to Nowhere.” He felt that this curriculum was not challenging enough to produce workers necessary for jobs in a high-technology future. He was correct. The Basic student could not perform those types of jobs. Unfortunately, in doing away with that degree, he forgot to do away with those students, and the parents who continue to produce them! Whether you believe Basic citizens are needed in the 21st Century or not, they’re here, and they’re not going away. Not every band member can be the drum major, lead majorette, or even 1st chair trumpet. Lake Wobegon doesn’t really exist, guys; it was a joke!

In the terminology of the “old retired teacher”, all we as educators can and should do is to help make all silk purses be the best silk purses they can be; additionally and importantly, we need to help make all our sow’s ears be the best sow’s ears they can be. It is no disgrace to be a sow’s ear when you’re doing your best. We need to encourage all our students; however, we should not tell a parent of a student who is 5’6” and runs 100 yards in 45 seconds that he can be the quarterback on our football team. We are just setting the child up for failure. As a high school teacher, I cannot speak for the elementary students, but a high school student’s BS meter is pretty sensitive. When we tell a teenager in the 10th grade who knows he reads on a 7th grade level and cannot add and subtract without a calculator, (because he has been pushed through school too quickly for his abilities), that he can excel academically, he knows we’re blowing smoke. The rebuttal to the argument that “All Children are Gifted,” and all students can achieve at a high level if you only demand it of them is left as an exercise for the reader after researching the normal distribution curve of abilities and discovering why this is impossible.

Governor Miller’s decision on the Basic high school degree forced educators to move the Basic students into the General curriculum. There, most of them became frustrated with a curriculum they were either unable, or in some cases unwilling, to learn. The teachers were faced with the choice of failing an unacceptably high number of their students, or trying to “Leave No Child Behind” and reduce the amount and difficulty of the information presented. Many of the students in the General classes (now named Technical Career) became disgusted with this and moved into the Accelerated curriculum (renamed College Prep), thereby forcing the brighter members of the Accelerated classes to complain to their parents. These parents then had their children moved into a specialized curriculum designed for the upper 4.6% of the nation’s population who are 2 standard deviations better in all learning dimensions (honors or Gifted classes). These courses were designed for the Michelangelos, the Einsteins, the Marie Curies, and the Bill Gateses of tomorrow. Yep, you got it. They slowed these guys down, too. In many schools the percentages of students in the honors courses are straining credulity.

Public schools were created to produce literate citizens capable of fulfilling their responsibilities in a democratic republic; somehow over the years educators became responsible for the future income of the nation’s citizens. Believe me; I know many of the jobs that the Basic graduates historically have performed are now going overseas, but educators cannot control that. Educators can only teach the children we’re sent to the best of our, and their, abilities; to demand otherwise only angers the students and frustrates the teachers.

Ronald Kidd