October recent thoughts

Two things have been on my mind lately. One is that it has become important to me to try and compliment particularly women (if I do compliment them) on something other than looks. Its so apparent the time and energy that is spent by women trying to be beautiful, when the focus should be on their character. Prov 31:30. I usually don't compliment men on their looks, but rather what they know or can do. So in a way its a double standard anyway. The Lord hates double standards.

The other thing came up today, someone has stated that our failing education system is responsible for our economic woes. I tend to agree, and was in the middle of grading math tests. Students seem more and more to expect a passing grade for just coming to class. They try and get by with minimal effort on their part. According to the article this has translated into workers who can't think, can't continuously improve, etc. In other words it has translated into America losing its competitive edge.

The article further states that workers who do implement improvements, try new ways of doing things, and continue their education are generally kept. While workers who wait to be told what to do, and have their assignments given to them are the first ones laid off. Their job prospects will remain low if they wait for someone to offer them a job.

One unemployed person I know told me the other day he was offered a job for less money than he had previously been making. Since he sensed his "need" for more money, he turned the job down. Taking the job may have prevented his continuing his education, in which case I can see that situation both ways.

In seeing this attitude and knowing how we generally are as instructors I would say every possible effort is made to help students succeed, and it becomes frustrating when they don't take advantage. They want second and third chances, they don't believe they will fail until its too late, then they are quick to blame something other than their lack of effort.

Has "No child left behind" fueled this? Some of our greatest minds have experienced failure, and yet we don't allow our children the benefit of that teaching method. It is tragic for students to fail, and we should teach and help to the best of our abilities, but failure "chasing" them may help them run toward "success".

We can always blame our mistakes and failures on not having the wisdom of age, I certainly do. Now we have people who seemingly have never failed, or made a mistake. They have done what was "expected" and yet they are nearly as helpless as when they were born.

Public school funding is tied to the "success rate" of students. This puts the schools in the awkward position of trying to show the students are successful. Usually done through test scores which can easily be improved by teaching the "tests", rather than thinking skills. It becomes memorization. This test also gets emphasized to the point that students have quickly learned to "cut back" on their performance in the not so critical areas. This means both sides meet at the test, an all or nothing. "Competencies" - which I'm told are different from tests- not sure I believe it are the newest fad. When they are implemented, then passing the competencies used to determine the success of students will then become the focus of teaching. Something will come along after that...

The fix? Each individual teacher has present the material to the best of their ability (which means continuous improvement) and then to grade fairly. God is about us doing what we can to be fair on a case by case basis. No biases. This will probably mean good teachers with not so high success rates will probably lose their jobs for "poor performance"- I've seen it happen (more than once).

That pressure can be removed by not tying school funding to performance. It should be a matter of number of kids means so many dollars. No extras, no cutbacks based on performance. Fairness, justice, and people striving to continually improve what they do can fix it. Its God's way.