Stomp (Or, How to make Homeschooling Look Good Again)

Poor Grice. Conformity and egalitarianism have trampled all over her, leaving big ugly tread marks on her soul.

My little perfectionist, no doubt one of the smartest and hardest working in her class, was subjected to the theoretically objective new state-wide grading system, the one that states all good solid work and effort shall be rewarded with a C, as C is average and what every student should attain, and honorable, nothing to be ashamed of; B's are rare; A's almost unheard of. Go, Mediocrity! The new grading system was announced last year, and Grice's school opted to institute it early, in the last grading period of the year, to familiarize everyone with the new standards. After her teacher gave me the preparatory rundown on how difficult and unusual it would be for students under the revised system to achieve A's and B's, she pushed Grice's report card across the table. All A's and B's for work, and all A's for effort, with outstanding comments. The teacher went on and on about her stellar performance. I was not surprised.

This year we received the same speech about the new tougher criteria and this time when the card was pushed across the table I was disturbed to see all C's, except for the A in art and a D in P.E. All effort marks were A's and B's. I didn't care about the grades, really, it's so arbitrary, but in their complicated efforts to make the process more objective, the state education department has actually in practice made it less so. What disturbed me was how Grice would react, and sure enough, when presented with the report at home, she immediately burst into hysterical sobs. We pointed out the comments were terrific and effort was high and that's all we were concerned with, screw the public school system, but she was inconsolable. Even jokes about the ridiculousness of the grades (Getting a D in gym with a B in effort, what does that mean? You tried real hard but you still suck at dodgeball?) didn't help.

At the beginning of this school year her current teacher had indicated at Meet the Teacher night that this, their last year in elementary school, would be the most difficult yet to prepare them for the rigors of high school (rigors which we're still waiting to see as Sarabelle continues to bring home the easiest and most imbecilic projects to work on) but honestly, it's not any harder than last year for Grice, so why the big discrepancy in the grades? We were also advised that the achievement of students who are not natural spellers (or "Word Smart" as the multiple intelligence information referred to it), who only get 4 out of 20 correct on weekly spelling tests, but who maybe improve to getting 5 out of 20 correct, would be seen as more impressive than the achievement of a child who consistently makes 20 out of 20. Go, Low Expectations! This incorrectly assumes though, that the child scoring 100% week after week is "Word Smart" and does not take into account the effort of a student like Grice, who is not, but who obsesses and and studies hard and considers it a dismal failure when she only scores 19 out of 20. And also assumes the teacher knows the correct spelling to begin with. On at least three occasions Grice has come home with what I now refer to as her "misspelling words" and once when I made her learn a word the correct way, not British vs. American, but just the good old-fashioned, there-is-no-such-word, proper spelling way, it was marked as incorrect. But what do you expect from a school whose motto is "To Try Is To Triumph"?

Speaking with a friend, whose child is also at the top of the class and Grice's bestie, we had the same impressions. Additionally we noted that the girls, who worked together on a group science project, were awarded with third place in the state for their presentation, something the teacher proudly pointed out and insisted we stop by the library to view, both only received C's in science. Neither of them received recognition for their positions on the Student Council (Grice is school captain) under Activities, and they had her daughter down as playing the wrong instrument. She however, is putting together an application for her daughter to attend a private school next year and it's crucial she have the card corrected. Jorge and I just don't give a flip. We can do better.

Grice has learned another valuable lesson.