As a story in today's paper notes, many schools now pass students on to the next grade, regardless of whether they have met the requirements of the curriculum. While this policy is intended to ensure that no student is left behind, some readers feel it instead just rewards lazy behaviour. Or so says this former teacher.
-- Paul Russell, NP letters editor
When I began to teach in 1968, the standards expected of students were much more rigid and higher than when I retired in 1999. I had a real struggle in the 1980s and 1990s “watering down” my expectations to meet the pass/fail requirements of the time. The entire process was very disconcerting. Students were entering Grade 9 without ever having passed a test in the last years of elementary school. And research assignments turned out to be the typical cut-and-paste of Grade 5 or 6.
As this article points out, colleges, universities and businesses are facing the aftermath of this whirlwind of social passing. It has given children the mistaken impression that there are no consequences for their lack of effort. When they fail at university or are fired for lack of effort in a job, they blame society.
The attitude of no student left behind is still there and will take years, or decades, to eradicate. Unfortunately, the teachers in schools now are products of that education system, so the will to change does not seem to be there.
J. Beverly Ewen, Ajax, Ont.
Kristin Rushowy
Iain Marlow Aug. 30, 2007Transferring troubled – even criminal – students between schools in the city's northwest end is one of the biggest safety issues facing C.W. Jefferys, says a report examining conditions at the school where ...
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