As if we needed further evidence that our children are
being dumbed down both at home and in school, along
comes an alarming article published in The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution newspaper om March 11th.
Reporter Mary MacDonald informs us of legislation
pending in Georgia that will essentially "give
students who repeatedly fail the high school
graduation test a chance to get a diploma." We are
expected to believe that there are, according to
supporters of the high school graduation test
exemption, "good students who cannot pass the
high-stakes exam." Is this Owellian doublespeak or
what? You better believe it.
Let me tell you something. There is absolutely
nothing "high-stakes" to a high school graduation test
if you as a student, and perhaps more importantly, you
as a parent, actually exercise RFE (respect for
education) on a daily basis.
Oh no. I can just picture it. Psychiatry will expand
on its obnoxious Test Taking disorder and create a
stiffer label and drug which will specifically be
prescribed to high school students who, for some
extremely odd reason, just continue to fail and fail
and fail the high school graduation test as many as
four times.
Kudos to state Superintendent Kathy Cox, who correctly
says to legislators and others such an exemption will
"devalue the high school diploma." Wouldn't it be
nice if Kathy Cox and others could help weed out all
psychiatric drugs and incorrect labels from our
schools as well?
The way I see this high school graduation test
exemption, there's one reason, and one reason only,
that explains why after four long years of high school
a student (and more than likely, a parent that never
bothered to regularly quiz their child who stinks at
tests) has their entire high school career hanging
from an itty bitty thread.
It's the D word, and I don't mean Dallas. Or dude. I
mean, discipline.
The cold fact of the matter is virtually all high
school students who take the easiest track in high
school, where one doesn't even have to take the SAT,
undoubtedly come from a family where at least one of
their parents is more like a buddy to them, than a
parent. Discipline may mean no telephone if the child
is failing a course, but watching television is OK for
that failing child. Talk about pushing a boulder
up a mountain just to watch and let it roll down on
you.
Good parenting in step with good children who listen,
will not tolerate abject failure. Laziness.
Stubborness. Constant trauma and drama. Below sea
level expectations. Spoiled mood swings. A guiding
philosophy of: "Hey, as long as I pass!"
Consider this when you take into account Sean
McKenzie, a Dalton high school teacher who supports
legislation that will still give students a diploma if
they can't pass the high school graduation test. He
testified in front of legislators, and was quoted in
The Atlanta Journal-Constutution reporter Mary
MacDonald's article as stating this slippery
falsehood: "You don't base a kid's future on one
test."
Excuse me. But even if we did - so what? When a
teenager enters high school, this is when the
proverbial bell is rung. It's on. High school has
started. It's a constant game of either consistency
or pathetic coddling. A cumulative process is at
play, if you will. What you do in the 9th or 10th
grade, may very well guide you in the 11th or 12th
grade. Garbage in/garbage out rules the day as it
should. Especially when it's time (and you knew it
was coming!) to take the high school graduation test.
You know, all you really have to do is think for a
minute about what the most successful and happy people
do with their lives, and the lives of their children.
There are expectations. Rewards. Punishments. Lists
of things to do are made. Eventually, all the things
to do are crossed off as completed. Good attitudes
abound. By no means, does a philosophy of: "Hey, as
long as I pass!" take hold in a truly healthy,
loving, disciplined family.
Family matters. The overall success of a family
should not be dependent on excuses for failure from
our elected politicians. We have been lied to as
parents by psychiatrists who tell us our children are
the way they are because of deficits in attention.
How silly. And stupid. More Orwellian doublespeak.
However, today's award for the darkest doublespeak
goes to Rep. Carolyn Hugley (D-Columbus) as she is a
co-sponsor of the bill to "give students who
repeatedly fail the high school graduation test a
chance to get a diploma."
According to Rep. Carolyn Hugley, "We know as a state
we have not done as much as we can do to prepare these
students to pass that test." Is it just me, or do
other people also wonder what kind of cheese is being
served with this "whine" at the Capitol?
So, this is what we're faced with. Either our
children are responsible for their lives as students -
or the State is. Either parents need to study with
their own flesh and blood more or simply stop being
a buddy to them. Failure and totalitarianism is not
an option.
It's just too bad so little is expected of Georgia's
high school students when it comes to giving of
themselves to take a final test before their life in
the real world begins.
Tony Zizza serves as Vice President for the State of Georgia
for the organization,
Parents For Label and Drug Free
Education.
