![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Inevitable, I Suppose
Jan. 27th, 2006 12:00 pmNiven's 16th Law: There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it.
A few days ago I wrote about the troubles boys are having getting a good education in public school. Today![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
celticdragonfly pointed me at a post about some total idiot suing a school and demanding "the school system should compensate boys for the discrimination by boosting their grades retroactively." Argh.
Okay, let me restate this. The problem is that boys are not learning what they need to. Inflating grades doesn't make them more knowledgable, it just postpones dealing with the problem to a worse time (further discussion of affirmative action should be on my other journal). I want to work toward getting a better education for boys, not a better transcript. There's no point in helping them flunk out of a better class of college.
There was a suggestion in there I could go for--making sports eligible for credit. Most are complicated enough that you can do a whole class in them. But I'd want it to be rigorous, not just handing out credit to everyone who plays. This means forcing coaches to make speeches like this:
"Biff, you're a great tackle. I want you on the team. I'll start you every game. But you can't get a pass to less than ten yards from the receiver. Plus you bombed on the final last year. C'mon, the essay question was 'When is a toss sweep better than a cross toss?' and you left it blank. Please don't take football for credit this year. I don't want to flunk you again."
A few days ago I wrote about the troubles boys are having getting a good education in public school. Today
celticdragonfly pointed me at a post about some total idiot suing a school and demanding "the school system should compensate boys for the discrimination by boosting their grades retroactively." Argh.Okay, let me restate this. The problem is that boys are not learning what they need to. Inflating grades doesn't make them more knowledgable, it just postpones dealing with the problem to a worse time (further discussion of affirmative action should be on my other journal). I want to work toward getting a better education for boys, not a better transcript. There's no point in helping them flunk out of a better class of college.
There was a suggestion in there I could go for--making sports eligible for credit. Most are complicated enough that you can do a whole class in them. But I'd want it to be rigorous, not just handing out credit to everyone who plays. This means forcing coaches to make speeches like this:
"Biff, you're a great tackle. I want you on the team. I'll start you every game. But you can't get a pass to less than ten yards from the receiver. Plus you bombed on the final last year. C'mon, the essay question was 'When is a toss sweep better than a cross toss?' and you left it blank. Please don't take football for credit this year. I don't want to flunk you again."
