No doubt, any parent who has had to jump in to do some home schooling in the last few months, quickly got a whole lot more appreciation for teachers. And there wasn’t a parent actually dealing with 30 or so kids at the same time. Yes, I always talk them up as I’m from a family of teachers. But I wonder how many parents at home had a little different focus (other than: please let this end soon…real soon..) than most school systems?
Our society is obsessed with the marks our kids get in school. It is our generally accepted measurement of their success. However, is that too simplistic? It certainly measures kids against others in their class, their behaviors, homework handed in on time, their likeability and attendance. Those things absolutely work with Gold and Green kids. Not so much with the people-first Colors of Blue and Orange.
What it doesn’t measure is the relationship between the teach and the kid, the relevancy of the class or material, the engagement or boredom level or other factors. Has the kid learned or mastered the material or simply memorized the necessities? Are those factors important? Are they even measurable? Is a pure mark and indicator of future success? You decide.
Wes Robertson, in his book Straight A’s Never Made Anybody Rich, argues that we are too obsessed with marks in school. He argues that, if you take a parachuting class and get a 99 out of 100 but on your first jump cannot remember how to pull the pull the ripcord, most classes would give you a posthumous “A” as a grade. In how many areas of classes, or training in the workplace, should it be less about the marks and more about learning and mastering the important things? You decide…