Public education

Certainly these are far from comprehensive, but I propose three revolutionary changes in public education.

1. Teacher-awarded grades should be abolished in all academic subjects. At present grades ranging from A-F are given for the same caliber of performance. Especially among popular, anything goes teachers, grade inflation substitutes for concerted learning. As an example, a seventh-grade teacher could likely have been voted "Teacher of the Year" by his students and even their parents. The following year I overheard one of his former students saying, "I hate the man. He didn't teach us anything last year." Grades should be determined by standardized tests.

2. Teacher evaluations should be objective rather than the current subjective method. As before and after pictures should always be taken of rental properties, so should there be before and after evaluations of all students. If a student enters the 10th grade with an eighth-grade achievement level and leaves the 10th grade with a ninth-grade achievement level, commendable progress has been made.

3. This third proposal will open a can of worms. We must recognize that half of a student's achievement is determined by the student's parents. Usually if it will do any good to talk to a parent about a student, there is no need to talk to the parent. If there is a need to talk to the parent, it will do no good to talk to the parent (exceptions are during the adolescent years when there a normal flexing of the wings in preparation for adult responsibilities.)

Jim Rahenkamp
Avon Park