Just the other day I was doing my daily scan through all of the internet-based news sites when I read an article that totally floored me. Seems you no longer have to get good grades to graduate high school. The new improved way for completing your 12 years of primary education is to have your parents sue any teacher(s) that is failing you. I bet you are thinking what I was at the time; “you have got to be kidding me”! I wish I was, but I’m not. From the Foxnews.com article:
Arizona English teacher Elizabeth Joice got a letter from a lawyer representing one of the students she failed. The letter asked her to take "whatever action is necessary" for the student to graduate or else the family would sue. Joice said the student plagiarized work, failed a paper and did not attend makeup sessions, among other things. School officials caved and the student was able to retake a test five hours before graduation and receive her diploma.
What the hell kind of message is this kid’s parents sending to their child? “If you don’t work hard, don’t worry we will be there to save you?” “There is no problem that can’t be solved with a good lawyer?” Do these folks not realize that they are doing their child a huge disservice? When I was going to school you failed your assignment when you got caught plagiarizing someone else’s work. Period! If you were fortunate enough to have a teacher that offered you a chance to make up missed assignments, you took it and counted your blessings. Those school officials in Arizona are creating a monster by giving into this crap. Now that they have set the precedence, you can bet your last dollar that it will continue to happen in that school district unless something is done. That aside, the moral implication of what they are doing is even more important. To me, they are saying that they can be coerced, under threat of litigation, into giving up on providing your child a quality education. That is pathetic. Every member of that school board should resign his or her position. They are a disgrace to their profession. If a parent wants to sue, let them. My main counter point in a lawsuit of that type would be “so, by suing the school district you are saying you don’t mind your child being an idiot, just as long as they pass”?
Another case mentioned in the article was just as pathetic. Have a read:
And in Kansas, several school officials resigned in April after biology teacher Christine Pelton gave 28 of her 118 students a grade of zero for a project she said students plagiarized. The school board later reduced the students' penalties and directed Pelton to change the project's weight of the total semester grade. Pelton resigned a day later.
Some parents thought the students were not given enough information about plagiarism and said Pelton was inexperienced. But Pelton said she asked parents and students to sign a syllabus in which she laid out the definition of plagiarism and the penalty.
How about that? The parents and students read the syllabus, signed that they understood what would happen if work was plagiarized, and still had the audacity to throw a hissy fit when their kids were failed as a result of stealing other people’s work. Um, uh, what am I missing here? Like the case before, you have a bunch of parents telling kids that it is ok to not follow the damned rules. And we wonder why kids are as screwed up as they are these days. Well DUH! Equally important is the loss of an educator. These folks work for peanuts as it is. I would have to assume that people who go into teaching realize that they will never get rich doing it. Unless they are just masochists, they must do it because they love it and they want to make a difference in some child’s life. So, along with the low pay, they must work within a system that tells them that they have to pass a child even though they know the child didn’t earn the grade? Very damned sad. As much as I cussed teachers when I was a student, I salute them now. I do not envy you your position.
Mr. David Griffith, spokesman for the National Association of State Boards of Education, had this to say:
"There's always going to be someone who would look at the lawsuit as a last result," Griffith said. But "you would hope parents would be involved in the students' education well before that … teachers don't take any joy in failing the students."
Amen! I think that is the root of this problem. Parents don’t take any interest in what their kids are doing in school, or in their personal life for that matter, until it reflects negatively on them.
The mutation of the legal system over the years is what allows these types of silly lawsuits to be filed in the first place. The fact that you have so many liberal minded judges sitting on the bench just exacerbates the problem. However, not all judges have a problem with seeing stupid lawsuits for what they are:
In January, 15-year-old Ohio resident Elizabeth Smith and her mother sued the Revere School District and 11 teachers over her failing grades. The suit, which sought $6 million, said the school’s grading practices punished the girl for her frequent lateness and absences even though she had excuses. That case has since been dismissed.
$6 million dollars?!?!? Are you kidding me?! The girl was frequently late, or not at school, and this child’s mom thinks that is justification for a lawsuit. Hey lady, I have an idea, how about get the kid to school so she doesn’t fall behind. The school’s grading practices caused her to fail? My ass! Sounds like her lack of attendance is what caused her to fail. What are they supposed to do Mrs. Smith? Change the rules so your little Elizabeth can pass? I will temper those sarcastic questions with this: If your daughter had some illness that prevented her from attending school on a regular basis, then yes, you have the grounds for at least an inquiry. From the tone of the article I read, I think that is perhaps not the case.
I have written a few articles this year that seem to have a common theme. Know what that is? No one wants to take responsibility for his or her own actions. This, and other types of moral backsliding, is what is killing this country. It is a disease that is slowly whittling away at what our forefathers shed their blood to create. To preserve what we are as a nation, it must be stopped; at all costs. I don’t know how to stop it. Do you?