I came across this story just a few minutes ago and it has infuriated me.

“DISD plan to ease grading standards angers teachers”

For example, the new rules require teachers to accept late work and prevent them from penalizing students for missed deadlines. Homework grades that would drag down a student’s overall average will be thrown out.

School officials said the new guidelines are needed to ensure that all district teachers operate under the same rules and to create a “fair system” for grading students.
 

By accepting late work, you therefore have not set a deadline. What is the point of that? This really angers me because of the students that bust their ass are not, in a sense, rewarded for their hard work. Where do you draw the line on this? Can a student turn in all of his homework the last day of class and not be penalized for it?

When I was still in high school, the kids that didn’t do their homework the night before it was due and sat in the hallway before class copying off someone else really made me angry. I couldn’t imagine how it would have made me feel had those same students dosey-doed into class and told their teacher they didn’t have their homework. Yet I was turning all of my homework in on time.

The last time I checked, the electricity company didn’t say it was ok if you didn’t pay your bill on time. Nope. You will come home and be in the dark. Don’t make any loan payments, be it your mortgage, auto, or credit cards, you can expect some stiff penalties.

This really stems from the whole movement of everyone gets a trophy mentality that we have accepted in the U.S. Do I understand the A for effort? Yes I do. But if I am significantly better than you, I want you to know it. I want you to work harder to be better. We are coddling our children in this society to think it’s ok to not do your best. It’s ok to fail constantly because someone will be there to reward you. If your dog doesn’t roll over, you don’t give him a treat.

In T-Ball and Pee Wee baseball during the summer we would all get a trophy at the end of the year. We were 5-7 years old and at that age it is quite appropriate to build up a child’s self-esteem with a reward because at that age, we’re not able to differentiate between a win or a loss. When you move up to Little League at ages 8-12, life changes right then and there. There are no second place trophies. There are second place ribbons but not trophies. Our LL team really sucked. If we weren’t dead last every year, we were pretty close. We were 8 year olds competing against 12 year olds. There was no way we could beat them. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t try. Now-a-days, if you’re an 8 year old then you’re going to compete against an 8 year old.  And at the end of the year, you’re going to get a trophy showing you participated in Little League during the summer.

In conclusion, I really hope that DISD changes this policy. School starts right around the corner, so I’m not sure they will. I have a few friends that teach in DISD so I’m really anxious to hear their reaction to this new policy.