Exemplary

R was so disappointed he didn't win in a competition . He was presenting, as a mock  sales man, a new make believe product. 700 students presented their ideas. Only four were chosen to go to state.  R's idea was foam filled tires to prevent flats on bikes.

He borrowed his father's suit and tie. He made a big tri fold poster,  with graphs and pictures. The problem, I felt , was the poster board did not look professional. He had cut out the words with scissors and it looked like a kid had put the poster together, which he had. I had seen it, but I am now in the hands off mode. I did not help. The end product was all R's work. They have to make this stuff up themselves.

I found out later that R forgot to close. He didn't ask for the sale in the end. That was the big difference between winning and losing the competition. Have to remember the end game is to get the sale.

Last year T did a poster for English. It came out looking really professional. He printed pictures off the computer and pinned them to his poster. He received an exemplary score for the work, which meant he could include the project in his graduation manual. Important achievement, as you need a couple exemplary works a year to graduate, theoretically.

 I can't believe that you can't graduate without these projects, but when you start to look into all these layers of requirements you find that there are layers of graduation certificates. To get the highest certificate you have to jump through these exemplary hoops.

Graduation is not about taking classes and tests anymore, they want you to be sales men and artists and professional writers before graduating regardless of ability. Excel  in several areas at once in High School. I pity the under achiever or the late blossom. Conceptually this seems like a great idea. It encourages students to strive for their best work. But the time flies by and they are eighteen and are missing graduation requirements.

The school district has a 51% graduation rate. I would love to see the drop out statistics to find the reason for the poor graduation numbers. Could it be all this exemplary work? Tracking all the requirements, when T can barely find where he put his shoes from the night before, is a lot to ask, and we are a functional family with a support network, and encouragement.

Imagine a child from a divorced family with two households trying to keep track of school work. Three out of five families are divorced these days. Though statistics are falling because families can't afford to divorce and maintain two households.

I do not remember having to jump through as many hoops as students today. We had year end projects, but we did not have to keep track of them for the four years of High School. Add volunteer requirements  to the graduation list. Our district has a horrible drop out rate. We don't even target kids into trades as an option just to keep them viable. I would love some conversation on what ever happened to just teaching the basics. They don't even have time to teach world history anymore, only current events. Anything not related to the USA or  older than this country is off the table. Crazy.