A classic move in an academic paragraph is to confirm and expand on somebody else's argument. Look at the essay on p. 192 of Spatt (Carl Singleton's "What our Education System Needs is More F's) and find one such argument. It doesn't matter whether you agree with Singleton or not. Find an argument you can support "for the sake of argument," as the old saying goes.
We'll talk about how to structure the paragraph in class, but here is a thumbnail organization:
5. YOUR point (the topic sentence)
4. Singleton's point
3. Quote or paraphrase from Singleton explaining or expanding his point
4. The hidden assumption behind or implication of Singleton's point
3. Explanation of that assumption
2. Evidence that supports that explanation
We will. I hope, have time to write the paragraph in class, but in any case, have it blogged by Monday's class so we can take a look.
The distribution of failing grades to students who haven't mastered the material assigned isn't only meant to motivate the students themselves but to also motivate the interest of their parents. Failing grades that are sent home with students should motivate the majority of parents to take action if they actually have an interest in their child's education. " Sending students home with final grades of F would force most parents to deal with the realities of their child's failure..." In order to take action regarding a child's academic standing, parents need to already show interest. When parents who care about a child's education and their grades, they will take action when poor performance is shown. Likewise, for parents who don't show interest in the education of their children no action will be taken against a child's poor performance. My father is a teacher which gives him great reason to care about my education. When I had been given bad grades in school my father was known to ground me for weeks at a time. He always said, "If you have time to go out with friends and get bad grades you have time to sit in your room."
ReplyDeleteToo many students are being passed through school without learning the basic material in their classes. In What Our Education System Needs Is More F’s by Carl Singleton, it is expressed that the solution to this issue is to simply give more F’s to students. As Singleton explains, “…I recommend giving those F’s ̶̶ by the dozens, hundreds, thousands, even millions ̶ only to students who haven’t learned the required material.” The theory behind this is that students are purely motivated by grades. Singleton believes that students will start to take the initiative to actually learn a course’s material if they receive F’s; they just need that extra push. For example, in high school I had an English teacher who was not afraid to give F’s for papers that did not meet her standards of high quality. You better believe that once my horrified Advanced English classmates (students who have never received grades lower than B’s) saw the big red F’s on their papers, they were determined thereafter to never allow that to happen again. This proved true because our following papers were far better and continued to improve so that we would be rewarded that much desired A in English to maintain our perfect GPAs.
ReplyDeleteStudents are often motivated by grades, so receiving a low grade for poor effort and performance can spark self-motivation within the students. Carl Singleton argues in “What our education system needs in more F’s” is that students who do not master the material taught deserve an F. He believes that by giving F’s and failing students the education system will improve and force students to learn. He believes that students should be retained at a certain level until the material is mastered. He says, “We would not be accommodating them in the old sense of passing them on, but by keeping them at one level until they did in time, one way or another, learn the material.” This can be a very self-motivating factor for a student if the fear of being retained at the same level, for as long as it takes, is attached to the low grade. The fear of having to come back as a fifth year senior because of a low grade became a reality for a friend and thus became a great self-motivating factor. Biochemistry at OWU is a tough course that is based on three exam grades and after receiving an F on the first exam, she became very motivated. She realized that if she failed the next exam, she would fail the class and not graduate on time and have to return as a fifth year senior. She buckled down and got a C+ on the second exam and a C on the third and passed the class.
ReplyDeleteWith educators grading students’ work more realistically, the education system will begin to be recognized more so for its flaws by the public. With the attention from the principal, school board, and voters, the education system has a greater potential to be improved so that only students who have mastered the material will move on to a higher level. Singleton suggests that, “as the numbers of students at various levels were increased by those not being passed, more money would have to be spent to accommodate them” (193, Singleton). The public needs to invest in the education system to better provide for students who are unmotivated or having difficulty with class material. In the State of Illinois all students in their junior year must take the PSAE. The school’s results are subdivided into sub groups and analyzed. If each subgroup doesn’t score above a specific percentage the school will be placed on academic watch while the State of Illinois reviews the school systems of each high school placed on academic watch. More money is invested and their academic system and is reorganized providing a more efficient system for students to excel.
ReplyDeleteOur society has turned education into a superficial competition by placing the A upon a pedestal. With parents demanding it, teachers expecting it, and students seeking it, it is inevitable that the wave of grade inflation will come crashing down. As students around the country fight diligently for it, all interest in learning has been lost. In the essay, What Our Education Needs is More F's, Singleton argues that teachers who give passing grades to students who have not earned them are hurting rather than helping our education system. Singleton points out that "school systems have contributed to massive ignorance by issuing unearned passing grades for a period of some 20 years". Singleton assumes that students are only motivated by grades, which at this point in the game is obviously true. When a student receives a high grade, regardless of whether they learned anything, they are rewarded. Additionally, when a student receives a low grade, even if they actually learned the material, they are punished by teachers and parents. I have experienced this first hand when I received a C in an English class in high school and was reprimanded by my parents. And while standing in the freezing negative fifteen degree winter weather of Montana at 8AM, waiting for the school bus, I realized that if I hadn't developed such an interest in philosophy in my English class, I might still have my driving privileges. By basing our education system on grades instead of learning, we have conditioned students to care about grades instead of learning.
ReplyDeleteThe United States has fallen behind in the classroom however; this can be changed if parents do more to motivate their children. In "What Our Education Needs is More F's" by Carl Singleton, he believes that by giving more F's, or in his opinion giving students the grade they deserve, parents will be more likely to get involved in students grades. For example, Singleton states that "Giving an F where it is deserved would force concerned parents to get themselves away from the TV set, too, and take an active part in their children’s education." By getting parents more involved in their children’s grades Singleton believes that grades will improve because students will be more motivated to do well in school. If parents become more involved in the education process, such as celebrating an A and punishment for an F, students will want to do better. For example, when I was in middle school I had a hard time keeping my grades above a C. My dad bribed me and said he would pay me five dollars for every A and four dollars for every B, but I had to pay him three dollars for every C on my next report card. To make a long story short I didn't have a single C on my next grade card and made 24 dollars. There are other ways for parents to motivate students to do well, but if that isn't motivation to do well I don't know what is.
ReplyDeleteWith higher grades being distributed more easily, students focus more on getting an A than actually learning the material. In Carl Singleton's essay, "What our Education System Needs is more F's," he argues that students need to receive worse grades in order to force them to study and remember the material, therefore earning them the higher grade they deserve. He mentions that giving out more F's to students would eliminate "illiterate college graduates next spring" as well as highschoolers. Singleton implies that tougher grading resulting in more knowledge of the material would allow students to succeed in high school, better preparing them for college and the real world. If students actually earn their A's and B's by studying and learning the information, they will retain that knowledge throughout their lives which can prove helpful in college and jobs. For example, in middle school my brother received A's and B's with very little effort. When he got to high school, he did not retain any of the information he had learned in previous years, putting the same amount of effort into his work. When he began to get D's and F's in classes it was a sign. He started to work harder and actually remember the information, and now he earns B's while continuing to understand and retain the information he learned.
ReplyDeleteLike shepherds who guide and take care of their flocks, teachers have the magnanimous responsibility of transmitting knowledge and guiding their students. A teacher fails when he or she has not given proper guidance to aid a students learning and causes a student to fail. Often time we have teachers who ignore a “failing” student, simply out of laziness then at the end of the term gives them a pass to satisfy themselves, deceiving the students and their parents. Singleton speaks about this practice in his argument and expounds on how this corruption instigated by teachers is as result of them protecting their reputations. He quotes in his “As every teacher knows, a failed student can be the product of a failed teacher” which clearly denotes the concept of his argument. In essence a teacher knows they have a responsibility for their flock and but out of negligence and laziness, most see the need to reap the benefits of being accredited instead actually of doing their jobs. This heinous crime by teachers catalyzes the decay of the education system creating a dynamic effect that has negative repercussions in our society. In my experience I know teachers who allowed failing students to copy other students “A” graded work (without the other students permission) to pass their courses . This is an example of how teachers have led failing students a stray, teaching them to do wrong instead of teaching how to ascertain a well-deserved pass. In most teachers point of view it is the easiest thing to do and cannot see the importance of teaching morality and virtuous living.
ReplyDeleteIf teachers started to fail more students, school districts and the community would be forced to offer more support fiscally. No child ever dreams of becoming a no body, however, many schools breed “no bodies” simply by passing students along, and it simply is unacceptable. Carl Singleton argues this point when he describes that the schools are not getting enough money in order to teach kids properly so, if teachers were to fail students, the community would have to pay attention. For example, he says, “giving an F whenever and wherever it is the only appropriate grade would force school boards and voters to think about funding their schools to raise kids that are failing up. Although this idea is very blunt, it is insinuating that the community and school boards do not care about their students properly. This means that by failing students, attention would be drawn to the already failing school districts and actions would have to be taken. There is underlying idea that if students were failing people would begin to care and this would fund schools in order to produce more productive and happy children. After all, without a supportive community for a child, there is no chance that they will be succeeding later in life. This idea of a dire need of funding for schools has impacted my life substantially. Before my senior year began, a levy failed to pass in order to fund my school district, and I lost every extra-curricular activity that meant anything to me my senior year. This did not just affect me, it affected the entire community; students, families, teachers, and principals were all deeply affected by this terrible circumstance. Therefore, if there were more F’s given to students in order to fund a school district and make people care, I would not object
ReplyDeleteAlthough some students are motivated to get good grades, other students may need extra incentive to do well in school. Carl Singleton argued that giving more F's in school will get parents more involved with their student's progress in school. Concerned parents will "take an active part" in their child's education and the student will be more motivated to excel. This implies that parents can give students a greater incentive to do better in school. Whether it is bribes to receive better grades or warnings of trouble if grades don't improve, active parents have students that perform better. Some may be sceptical but it does work. A friend of mine was struggling with her grades, and when here parents found out they gave her some extra incentive to pull up her grades. Her parents told her that if she got straight A's for the symmester they would buy her a laptop. She started to work much harder, her grades improved and by the end of the symmester she had the required straight A's.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why the American school system is deteriorating to produce literate and educated students is because it does not fail students who deserve to fail. In his essay “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s” Carol Singleton, a professor at Fort Hays State University, argues that the entire American education system is to lax when grading. Illiterate students or students who fail to meet all the basic qualifications are graduating. Singleton writes that the “school systems have contributed to massive ignorance by issuing unearned passing grade…” (p. 192). By this statement Singleton assumes that parents and students only care about their education when they receive a failing grade. My own experience validates Singleton’s point. I had many friends who were much more intelligent than me but only did the work to receive the minimum passing grade. When they ended up receiving F’s and were in danger of failing a class, then they would work much harder so that they would not have to repeat a class. If the teacher had been stricter and expected more from the beginning and gave them more F’s, it seems very likely that their academic careers would have been quite different.
ReplyDeleteIn the bureaucratic quagmire that is the American education system,we are currently faced with the startling fact that many of our students and parents care little about gaining knowledge and only about receiving a grade. In Carl Singleton’s essay “What our Education System Needs is More F’s,” Singletons analyzes how the American educational approach fails our students and allows them to pass without truly learning the required material. This in turn creates a society that expects passing grades and over the years parents and students alike have evolved to the point where today no one really cares if a student gains a solid grasp of the material so long as they pass the objective with an appropriate grade. Think of how few times you have heard a parent really question their student about the material they are supposed to have learned. Probably they themselves have long forgotten the material themselves because they are most likely a product of the American style of education and learned the material only for a grade to pass their parents expectations. In my own personal experience I have found my parents, who are both in the education field themselves, care little about my knowledge comprehension but only about the letter that appears next to the class on the report card.
ReplyDeleteStudents are undoubtedly motivated by a bad grade. Although a C or D may concern them, students are more shocked when they receive the big red F. In his article What our education system needs is more F’s, Carl Singleton believes that more F’s would be beneficial to students. “The results of giving an F where it is deserved would be immediately evident. There would be no illiterate college graduates next spring – none. The same would be true of high school graduates, and consequently next year’s college freshmen – all of them – would be able to read.” Singleton believes that F’s not only capture the student’s attention, but the parent’s attention as well. The underlying assumption in this reading is that parents don’t care as long as students bring back good grades. They never stop to wonder if their daughter or son has actually earned those grades because in today’s society we trust our education systems more than they sometimes deserve. My parents were perfect examples of this problem; when I brought home my first F, their happy demeanor immediately turned sour. The teacher’s name was Ms. Moore and in the future I would learn to appreciate the frequency in which she handed out F’s. My first essay that I wrote for her was an “F+.” What exactly does this mean? It means, “You are on the right track but not there yet.” I went to see her after class and we went through my mistakes, but the grade stayed. When my parents found out about this “F+,” right away they started forcing me to study for a certain amount of time each day so that they knew they were making it possible for me to get my work done, whether I did it or not. This “F+” was followed by a few more, but after spending many hours after school with this teacher I learned what she wanted in an essay and my grades began to improve. My parents were letting my study hours slip until they heard of this horrible grade. The existence of this “F+” made them realize that I needed to be working harder and I needed their help to do it. Had I not received this grade, I may not have developed the writing skills that I need in college today.
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that a failing student could be the result of a teachers failed methods. Carl Singleton points out that the “teaching methods, classroom presentations, and testing procedures” could all be a cause for student’s failure because they are not effective. Singleton explains that it may not be thee students fault for not fully understanding the material, but could be the styles of teaching that the teacher is presenting in class. If academic departments were to begin to give F’s to all students who have not totally mastered the material, there would have to be standards set very high to ensure fairness. Most teachers will begin to realize that their teaching methods are not working when they notice all the students doing poorly. In many cases it is not just the students being lazy, but may be the teachers not adapting their lessons to fit the class. Many times I have left class and felt more confused because I did not understand the activity or relevancy of a lesson. By giving all the students F’s for unmastered material, it gives reason for students not to try because they do not have the right recourses given to them.
ReplyDeleteGiving more F's to students will help motivate them to try harder in school. Carol Singleton argues in his essay "What Our Education System Needs is More F's" is that if we had teachers that failed students the students would meet the requirements to pass classes. He says "The results of giving an F where it is deserved would be immediately evident. There would be no illiterate college graduates next spring-none." This is assuming that the students would actually step up and make an effort to master their courses. They would make an effort to "master the material" so they wouldn't receive a failing grade. A friend of mine shows that this is a true statement. She was taking a chemistry course and was close to failing so she started studying harder and got a tutor and passed her class.
ReplyDeleteThe school systems need to stop passing kids through along through the different grades. Singleton believes that assigning F’s would force the students to study until they have mastered the required material and would eliminate the problem of them graduating without obtaining the needed knowledge. He wrote, “School systems have contributed to massive ignorance by issuing unearned passing grades over a period of some 20 years”. He is assuming that education in America is no longer taken seriously. There are no disciplinary measures in force to keep students on task while in school, and they wind up in the ‘real world’ without basic skills, such as reading, writing, and basic math.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Singleton makes a valid point in saying parents will help more if their children get bad grades, including parental help as a factor as grades seems like an unfair variable. Singleton seems to think that the responsibility for grades lies at home with the parents. As a student, I don't think this is being fair to all students. Singleton makes a comparison of students to prisoners, which contradicts his earlier point by putting responsibility of improvement on the student; not the parents. His argument seems to create a glass ceiling for students whose parents don't have the motivation or ability to get them the help they need. When it's all on the students to do their own work, you see grades better representing the amount of work a student puts in and not just how much parents want to or can care for the students. I know that as a college student, as smart as I may be, it is not due to any sort of physical help I got from my parents but having put that responsibility on myself about 10 years ago, I have learned to work harder and internalize my successes and failures. I do think motivation that parents provide as a valid factor, yet I think students' grades are most completely based on how much that student cares.
ReplyDeleteToday, the general focus of students is to get the grade they need to advance and forget the purpose of the information that was supposed to be embedded knowledge. According to Carl Singleton’s “What Our Education System Needs if More F’s”, those students that do not fully learn the material should not be able to move up a level in their education. Specifically, he believes that students should be accommodated not by being easily passed, “but by keeping them at one level until they did in time, one way or another, learn the material” (193). This could be the answer for students only learning the material for a brief period of time to get the grade they need to move on and never truly understanding the concept of the lesson. By only memorizing information in a short period of time, students never really store that data for the long term and eventually have to waste time to relearn it in later education. If students were to be quizzed at the end of each class then there would be more active learning and it would be better retained. Most of my peers, including myself, have been known to cram right before a test and never remember a single thing after, therefore wasting time loading our brains now and even more in the future for the final. If students get it right the first time and learn the material correctly, they will not be left behind and have a chance at a better education.
ReplyDeleteThe inconvenient truth of this world is –parents are no longer concerned whether their kids learn anything at school or not. They don’t give a damn if the kid inculcates a love of learning or if he understands the material. That is entirely the teacher’s job. What they are concerned about is that the straight A’s keep coming home. A good report card means all is well- no action needed, let the kid be. Take, for instance, what Carl Singleton, a professor at Fort Hays State University, has to say about the matter. In his essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education, he states that “giving an F where it is deserved would force concerned parents to get themselves away from the TV set…and take an active part in their children’s education.” He is convinced that the F grade “would force most parents to deal with the realities of their children’s failure.”
ReplyDelete“As long as it is the practice of teachers” he argues, “to pass students who should not be passed, the responsibility will not go home to the parents, where, I hope, it belongs.”
What Mr. Singleton is implying is simply a stimulus and response mechanism essentially. A is equal to stick to the TV set, with little or no action taken. F is equal to sit up, take note, roll up your sleeves and work on the kid. I have seen this pattern several times in my life. I ask myself- do they really care if the kid understands the stuff, even if he gets an A? Do they check on him? A’s can be got easily if one cheats or if the teacher is lenient. Frequently, in high school, I’ve seen some of my classmates being hollered at by their parents because they got the F. These parents grind their children, squeeze them till they pass the mark (note that they only want the pass grade, not the A). In other cases, I see the A-graders’ parents strut about the school, patting their childrens’ backs. These children are “privileged”, get all they want and are never “bothered” by their parents. Which is why, unfortunately, they didn’t all end up in meritorious colleges. And I ended up at OWU because my mom ensured that I learned my stuff up, not just got A’s. She brought me books after books to read so I could learn to write proper English. The moral of the story (and the inconvenient truth, in closing) is that parents should be equally or more involved in the development and upbringing of their children. Grades should not be proportional to your effort in the kid.
The American education system has fallen behind where it once was, and the most frightening thing is the idea that it could snowball and get worse. Right now we are giving passing grades and even good grades to kids who don’t deserve to pass at all. As Singleton pointed out in his piece, “The basic problem of our educational system is the common practice of giving credit where none has been earned.” What this means is that we are now sending people not qualified out for jobs. The worst part about this is the snowball effect I mentioned before. Some of those unqualified people that are being sent out are soon to be teachers, which will in turn teach the way they were taught and only perpetuate the problem. If you don’t believe this, try googling grade inflation. We’ve all been told that C is average but if you look around you’ll find most people expecting an A. I know in this day and age I wouldn’t want to have to apply to a college with a 2.0 and try to explain how a C is supposedly average.
ReplyDeleteF’s are the Fuel that allows students to ignite their potential. Carl Singleton makes a valid point when he describes the ignorance of the school systems when issuing unearned passing grades and how our grading system has deteriorated. Students are being spoiled by teachers who have given them unjustified grades, “Come to class and get your C’s, laugh at my jokes and take home B’s”. Singleton doe not blatantly state this but he is trying to highlight the growing incompetence of the American youth. As students receive passing grades when they should not have, they are going to higher schooling (college) and future careers always playing catch up to fellow peers who actually did deserve their A’s and B’s. An example o f this is that the United States rank 18th out of 36 on the topic of education compared to industrialized foreign countries. You would expect the United States, one of the world’s most powerful countries, to be better than the mediocre ranking they have now. Personally, I’ll never forget how the star football players at my high school got passing grades so they could play. I thought that scenario was just on TV shows and movies, but when I saw it occur in real life, it was surreal and disturbing.
ReplyDeleteStudents today are completely motivated by grades, and by giving more F’s, the students and the education system could be improved. Too many students are being passed through school without learning the basic material in their classes. In What Our Education System Needs Is More F’s, Carl Singleton expresses that the solution to this issue is to simply give more F’s to students. As Singleton explains, “…I recommend giving those F’s ̶̶ by the dozens, hundreds, thousands, even millions ̶ only to students who haven’t learned the required material.” The theory behind this is that students are purely motivated by grades. Singleton believes that students will start to take the initiative to actually learn a course’s material if they receive F’s; they just need that extra push. For instance, in high school I had an English teacher who was not afraid to give F’s for papers that did not meet her standards of high quality. You better believe that once my horrified Advanced English classmates (students who have never received grades lower than B’s) saw the big red F’s on their papers, they were determined thereafter to never allow that to happen again. Later, the result of this strict grading proved effective. Our following papers were far better and continued to improve so that we would be rewarded the much desired A in English to maintain our perfect GPAs.
ReplyDeleteThis is my revised PA #3.
Repost- Second Draft
ReplyDeleteStudents are often motivated by grades, so receiving a low grade for poor effort and performance can spark self-motivation within the students. In “What our education system needs in more F’s” Carl Singleton argues that students who do not master the material taught deserve an F. He believes that students should be retained at a certain level until the material is mastered, by saying, “We would not be accommodating them in the old sense of passing them on, but by keeping them at one level until they did in time, one way or another, learn the material.” This idea can become a very self-motivating factor for a student if the fear of being retained at the same level, for as long as it takes, is attached to the F. The fear of having to come back as a fifth year senior because of an F became a reality for a friend and thus became a great self-motivating factor. Her F was received in biochemistry and biochemistry at OWU is a tough course that is based on three exam grades and after receiving an F on the first exam, she became very motivated. She realized that if she failed the next exam, she would fail the class, not graduate on time and have to return as a fifth year senior. To add to the fear, she would lose her academic scholarship, which was allotted for four years, and have to pay the fifth year entirely by herself, which she could not afford. The fear of returning for another year and a financial crisis caused her to buckle down and get a C+ on the second exam and a C on the third, which allowed her to pass the class.
Unlike a C letter grade, a big, fat F will make students desire to learn a subject perfectly. Eventually, they will. "What Our Eduction System Needs is More F's" identifies author Carl Singleton's fear that passing grades are given too often to those who have not fully learned the subject. According to Singleton, failing students will "...force into the open ever major issue related to the inadequacies of American education." C's and other passing grades that are not perfect A's are only lies. Any letter grade that is not an A simply means that you do NOT have enough well-rounded knowledge by the end of a class. Singleton believes that F's should "only be given to those who haven't learned the required material", and they will want to do well in the class in order to get that A.
ReplyDeleteRevised Draft
ReplyDeleteF’s are the Fuel that allows students to ignite their potential for Future careers. Carl Singleton describes the ignorance of the school systems when issuing unearned passing grades and how our grading system has deteriorated. Students are being spoiled by teachers who have given them unjustified grades, “Come to class and get your C’s, laugh at my jokes and take home B’s”. Singleton implies the growing incompetence of the American youth. As students receive passing grades when they should not have, they are going to higher schooling (college) and future careers always playing catch up to fellow peers who actually did deserve their A’s and B’s. Personally, I’ll never forget how the star football players at my high school earned received passing grades to remain eligible. I thought that scenario was just on TV shows and movies, but when I saw it occur in real life, it was surreal and disturbing.
Undeserving passing grades has led to unearned teaching certifications. This low-quality teaching has caused the entire American education system to fall into a major decline that will perpetuate itself unless a drastic change is made. That this decline in the education system can be reversed by a widespread distribution of failing grades is argued by Singleton in his essay “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s.” Singleton claims that “the basic problem of our educational system is the common practice of giving credit where none has been earned.” From this, we can infer that dispensing a great amount of F’s will reduce grade inflation. In other words, Singleton suggests that the American education system is ultimately suffering from an inflation of high grades. We see the effect of this inflation today by the reduced value of a high school diploma. Today a college degree is necessary to achieve a decent paying job and to start a career. A couple decades ago the same could be achieved with only a high school diploma.
ReplyDeleteA major issue in today’s school systems is that there are many students who walk away with passing grades (C’s, B’s, etc.) when they should be given failing grades. Carl Singleton said in his essay “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s”; “School systems have contributed to massive ignorance by issuing unearned passing grades over a period of some 20 years. At first there was a tolerance of students who did not fully measure up (giving D’s to students who should have received firm F’s); then our grading system continued to deteriorate (D’s became C’s, and B became the average grade); finally we arrived at total accommodation (come to class and get your C’s, laugh at my jokes and take home B’s).” Many in today’s society have adopted the attitude that everything should be handed to them instead of having things be properly earned, and this philosophy has drifted into our school systems; the major fix that needs to take place is to eliminate the easy passing of students and fail them where they need to be failed. For example, the hard-working students want to give everything they have in order to be successful in the classroom. On a weekend where they could be taking advantage of their free time by hanging out with friends or playing Call of Duty, they spend their time studying for the big exam that is slowly approaching and they never let one minute go to waste. Students such as these are working hard so they can be admitted and enrolled into some of the nation’s top colleges such as Harvard, Princeton or Yale. However, on the other end of the spectrum there are students who could not care one bit about their academic prosperity, and instead decide that leisure time is more important than study time. Many of these lackadaisical students are passing in school and getting admitted into colleges and universities where they don’t deserve it. In some cases, students such as these are admitted over students that work hard and deserve to be enrolled into some of our nation’s top schools, and this is simply unfair. For the lazy students, if they don’t learn that hard work is the key to success, then their passive work ethic will lead to their destruction later on in life.
ReplyDeleteStudents who have not mastered required material should fail the course, and be required to retake the course until the required material is mastered, but the parents of these students need to be held more accountable for the success or failure of their children. Carl Singleton, a professor at Fort Hays State University argues in his essay “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s” is that teachers need to fail those students who have not learned the required material, ensuring that no high school or college graduate is incompetent and/or illiterate. He explains, that if teachers continue to pass students that are unfit to continue their education at a higher level, parents are unaware of the lack of knowledge maintained by their son or daughter, and therefore will not aid in the education process in the way they should. Through this statement, Singleton expresses his assumption that parents should be held to a higher standard of motivating and ensuring that their son or daughter masters the required material to continue their education. If parents were to see that their son or daughter was not performing at the required level, they should put extra pressure on him or her to reach and exceed that standard. A personal experience of mine validates Singleton’s point, my brother earned low grades through middle school, barely meeting requirements set by his academic institution. My parents let this happen until after the first quarter of his first year in high school, they said that they would take away his computer and social life until his grades improved, sure enough he has not earned below a B for the past two years.
ReplyDeleteIn the point of getting more F’s allows a student to gain motivation from a place beyond the generalized passing point. By upholding our personal expectations whether or not that is by fear or failing or fear from outside personal pushers, aka our parents. If parents were more involved in our daily learning experience through education, just like we developed our skills as children. Then maybe we’d push ourselves harder to achieve. I personally agree that parents should be more active in the higher education of the pre-teen adults. Simply because A’s are to easy to get. Laziness overcomes a lot of the time hindering most of our potential to want and the need to learn. Thus leading ourselves down into a ditch where F’s are gathered. F’s are so difficult to get that some of us are experts. My personal motivation was going to school in Canada. I was sent there to gain a higher sense of education where I could apply myself. Some might think that going to Canada being far away from my parents would cause less motivation. Yet, it actually gave me more insentive to prove them wrong. That I could achieve those A’s with the effort instead of F’s with ease.
ReplyDeleteRevised draft #2
ReplyDeleteThe inconvenient truth of this world is –parents are no longer concerned whether their kids learn anything at school or not. They don’t give a damn if the kid inculcates a love of learning or is able to understand what he learns. That is entirely the teacher’s job. What parents are concerned about is that the straight A’s keep coming home. A good report card means all is well. No action needed, let the kid be. Take, for instance, what Carl Singleton, a professor at Fort Hays State University, has to say about the matter. In one essay, he states that “giving an F where it is deserved would force concerned parents to get themselves away from the TV set…and take an active part in their children’s education.” It would induce them to deal with their ward’s failure.
“As long as it is the practice of teachers” he argues, “to pass students who should not be passed, the responsibility will not go home to the parents, where, I hope, it belongs.”
What Mr. Singleton is implying is essentially a stimulus and response mechanism. A is equal to stick to the TV set, with little or no action taken. F is equal to sit up, take note, roll up your sleeves and work on the kid. I have seen this pattern several times in my life. Frequently, in high school, some of my classmates got hollered at by their parents for the ‘F-bomb’ (the grade, not the profanity). These parents grind their children, squeeze them till they pass the mark (note that they only want the pass grade, not the A). In other cases, I see the top students’ parents strut about the school, patting their childrens’ backs. These children are “privileged”, get all they want and are never “bothered” by their parents. Which is why, unfortunately, they did not all end up in meritorious colleges. And I ended up at OWU because my mom ensured that I learned my stuff up, not just got A’s. She brought me books after books to read so I could learn to write proper English. The moral of the story (and the inconvenient truth, in closing) is that parents should be equally or more involved in the development and upbringing of their children. Grades should not be proportional to your effort in the kid.