Education Standards

So, as I am watching House of Cards, they keep bringing up Education and performance standards.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear before I start this, I know there are children out there who cannot do the same work as everyone else. I know there are kids who have learning disabilities. My brother, who I do not speak to anymore, cannot read. He will not read unless it is needed for something like school or work. This is not about children like that. I actually wish there were programs in schools that were for children like that.

Now, that being said, I think performance standards are SHIT. I know that you have to have some sort of standard for the teachers to follow so that you do not have someone just handing out papers and over half the class failing. However, I believe that if the students are not performing up to standards, it may not be the teacher's fault.

Take more example a shy student who does not understand the work. This shy student will not ask the teacher for help when the teacher asks if any of the students do not understand the work or the problem in say a math class. This student is also afraid to approach the teacher during down time in the classroom because they do not want to be seen as a teacher's pet by their peers. The student rides the bus, and goes home to the babysitter or parent, and then gets help there. The babysitter or parent may not have time due to housework or the other children that need more attention. The student falls behind and cannot catch up because that lesson is needed to complete the future work in the classroom. That student then effects the performance standard.

Now, take the kid who is super smart. This is the student who gets the problem on the first try and goofs off in class, doesn't do the homework, and makes decent grades on exams. They rarely do anything but goof off and distract other children who Because all of the grades across the board are not A's because they have zero's in spots for homework, that also effects performance standards. Hell, I was one of those kids in some of my classes. Not math, but most of them. I hated sitting in classrooms doing the same work I had been doing since I was ten years old. I remember slamming down the grammar packet on my English teacher in the first fifteen minutes of class on the first day of my Freshman class, completely finished mind you, and told her that if that was what the honors class was about I was going to fail because I refuse to do that work. She looked at the packet, looked back up at me, and sighed "Let me figure out something for you, because we cannot test you out of this class." She had at least two more of me in her classes. It was amusing to see her try to come up with something that was challenging for us while trying to do things for the rest of the class.

Then, there are the kids who do not give a shit. They are the kids that show up because they are forced to be there. I wish there was a way to factor them out somehow. I had a teacher who would make us write out a reason we did not do homework on the form, and sign it. She would then turn those papers in a file to the Dean of Students and when someone would ask why her performance standards were "low", out the file would come and it explained everything. Those kids are ALL OVER the classrooms in every school.

Those figures may be a small fraction of the standards, but think about it. It could be the small fraction that keeps a good teacher in a school instead of out. I am all for taking some of my time out of my day to volunteer after school for students who do not have the parents or someone else to help them at home, but that takes more manpower than most think. There are solutions to these performance standards problem, and let me tell you, it is not all on the teachers my friends.