View Points

I'm getting a super late start today, but it's cool though, because I already got Stella Mae from school. She had a minimum day today so the school's Sophomores could take the High School Exit Exams. Something about that doesn't seem right. In your second year of High School, they expect you to already know everything you need to know to graduate! No wonder kids don't want to be there. I liked High School. I didn't have any friends, or anything else to do. I lived in the middle of the desert. High School gave me something to do. I'm so glad we didn't have the internet back then, or I would be such a dork now. I may not have ever left my room. But I guess that's beside the point. At first I thought she may have been mistaken, but her story didn't change, so I'll have to go with it. Although, she did say that it took some kids 2 or 3 turns to pass it. Those 2^nd and 3^rd turns being their Junior and Senior year. So I guess in a way, that would be helpful, to get them ready for what they are supposed to know. But she also made a comment about there being a 93% pass rate. Again, at first I thought she may be mistaken, but it's not really like her to just make stuff up, especially statistics. She may have misheard, or been confused, but she seemed to know what she was talking about, so I've decided to consider it true. At least for now. This, however, has got my mind racing.

If it is true, what does that mean? If 93% of the kids can pass the CA High School Exit Exams by their second year, what the hell do they have to look forward to? Padding their resume? Plus, how depressing would it be to be preparing to leave High School by the time you get to your second year? Granted, it is a temporary situation, but for me High School didn't even get rolling until my Junior year. Maybe that's why I'm at where I'm at, we'll never know. But that too, is beside the point. The point is, that this has lead me to at least 2 rather dismal thoughts. 1) Are we trying to make sure they enter their lives with a solid, well rounded education? Or are we simply trying to make sure they can pass the test that says that they have a solid, well rounded education? You can teach a chicken to play Tic-Tac-Toe, but that does not mean it knows binary code. Who really benefits from this type of endeavor, the Educational Institution, or the future of our species? 2) If 93% can pass by the second year, how much better prepared could they be by the end? I'm sorry, but I do not feel like the 7% should be coddled. Why should they get 3 tries? We can't constantly be lowering the bar! I think it does equal disservice to the 93% and the 7%. It would make more sense for the Institution to decipher who these 7% are ahead of time, so they can get them the help they need, without subjecting the 97% to the idea that they already know all they need to know. Because, as you may know, most teenagers feel that way already.

I suppose I would feel differently if I, or someone I knew, were in the 7%. Maybe catching them by the time they're a Sophomore, gives them the time to make the corrections. I just feel you should be learning more in High School than you can learn by the 10^th Grade! I'm so rarely on the fence about these kinds of things that it makes me really consider both sides of the equation when I am. Socially I feel that the people who need help should get it, but not at the expense of the group. I'm getting all worked up, and it may be all over nothing, as it usually is. But, yet again, that is beside the point. Although, at this particular moment, I'm not even sure if I'm anywhere near the point. I had no idea I was going to write any of this. However, now that I have taken a minute, or 60, to put it all down, I realize that it has helped me poke a couple of holes in my shroud. I think this is a very important part of life, being able to take both sides as equals. It is the only true way to know how you feel. If you never consider the other side of the fence, how can you be comfortable with your own? We seem to have gotten to this place where not agreeing with people means they are against you. What a sad way to live. As far as I'm concerned, you can't really know anything about your point of view unless you have something to compare it to. And, if you're only comparing your point of view to other points of view like yours, you really aren't putting it through the scrutiny necessary to see if it stands on it's own. If your point of view can't stand the scrutiny of comparison, it's probably not really a point of view.

Daughn