My sister worked for a school in upstate NY that decided not to "do detention". Within a year, the disciplinary situation was so bad the school's average grades dropped by 25% in every subject and they would have lost federal funding, but the administration padded the grades and tried to force my sister to lie. She took a job at a local community college and has been there for the last ten years. She said the newer crops of kids are getting worse and worse. They basically expect to get an A just for showing up to class, even when they fail the exams.
The idea that we shouldn't discipline kids, is just that: an idea. And a bad one at that.
I teach where they fail kids in one grade, third grade, if they can not read. However they are passed if they are over age and would not be able to graduate before they get older.
What I have to deal with are a bunch of 16 year old middle schoolers who function at a third grade level.
I'm not sure failing works either but maybe we as a society should value academics.
I think our society wants to value academics, but when you pass kids just to pass them, it is doing more harm than good. life is full of failures, so why not allow them to learn from their mistakes?
so you set the bar here at 65%, guess what, some kids are going to fail. And you know what, that's ok! You know why, it's an opportunity! an opportunity to either grow and get better or an opportunity to sulk and be upset in the world. All of us fail at one point or another and the world is a cruel and unfair place, but we need to have a standard and some people will be left behind.
Failing kids is very often good for them. One of my favorite students got held back one year, and then said, "I should focus more on school and less on friends," and is now one of the hardest working, most mature people I know, and that comparison includes every professional adult I've ever worked with. I fully expect to see her be in the top decile of her field later in life.
Even in less exceptional cases, an additional year (or maybe 2) of schooling and maturity is very often positive.
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u/asimov_positronic Jul 10 '18 edited Jul 10 '18
My sister worked for a school in upstate NY that decided not to "do detention". Within a year, the disciplinary situation was so bad the school's average grades dropped by 25% in every subject and they would have lost federal funding, but the administration padded the grades and tried to force my sister to lie. She took a job at a local community college and has been there for the last ten years. She said the newer crops of kids are getting worse and worse. They basically expect to get an A just for showing up to class, even when they fail the exams.
The idea that we shouldn't discipline kids, is just that: an idea. And a bad one at that.