Poli-ticks

The tyranny of low expectations

By Arlene Violet
Posted 12/31/18

Happy New Year! That’s all I really wanted to say in this first column of 2019. I wanted it to be “nice”. GRRR! It can’t be, though, because of the nonsense of East Greenwich …

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Poli-ticks

The tyranny of low expectations

Posted

Happy New Year! That’s all I really wanted to say in this first column of 2019. I wanted it to be “nice”. GRRR! It can’t be, though, because of the nonsense of East Greenwich High School administrators who are seriously proposing the elimination of a valedictorian and salutatorian in the name of making school less stressful for students. Weighted GPA’s may also be banished. Say what?

Here we go again. Punish the students who want to excel or reach beyond their expectations. Pretend that life and jobs are not chock full of stress that folks have to master in order to lead productive lives. Pretend! Pretend! Pretend!

Isn’t this “too much stress” excuse the same mantra that was bandied about in school sports some years back? Teams were not supposed to keep scores lest they felt inferior to stronger players. Balls and strikes shouldn’t be called in a baseball game since the player should be up at bat until he/she connects with the ball. Doesn’t Johnny get hurt, though, when he hits a pop fly, bats into a double play, or meanders toward first base and gets called out?

By extension, the Homecoming King and Queen should be dethroned. Eliminate gowns and tuxes for proms since some folks can’t afford it. Wear uniforms so Mary won’t feel out of style. Don’t grade papers since the “D’ on the essay will have the student flip out!

This slippery slope once stopped educational progress in Rhode Island by deep-sixing then-Education Commisioner Deborah Gist, from implementing long-term standardized tests or competencies in order to graduate. Even now many folks think that Johnny should get his sheepskin even if he can’t read what it says.

By the way, there also is no accountability for the adults in charge of the school system since without objective grades and honors you’d have to be Sherlock Holmes to find out about what kind of education is going on. Given the woeful performance of Rhode Island school children, including in affluent East Greenwich, is it paranoid to suggest that the effort is again underway to whittle away such benchmarks?

Of course, there is another unintended consequence as well, i.e. the soft bigotry of low expectations. We are back on the track of extending the once-subtle discrimination for children belonging to ethnic minorities or low income children to homogenizing all children as incompetent. That’s one way of getting rid of discrimination! Needless to say, the literature on education is replete with studies that teachers who expect children not to perform produces kids who don’t.

This “soft bigotry” is another step in the dumbing down of education. Given the “soft bigotry” which held back the education of minorities such a concept now would apparently gain a foothold by applying to all children. Low expectations were the way government convinced many minorities that they are helpless victims of a racist society or that we cannot survive without government help. Now this concept may be repackaged for everyone to be “given” a place to avoid stress packaged as compassion. Apparently, the next generation of students might be reared to believe that they don’t have to be productive and work at anything because the government will “help”. Good grief!

Arlene Violet

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