THE VILLAIN IN EDUCATION
Samuel, Dorothy
the VILLAIN in education by DOROTHY SAMUEL Of the many fine articles I have read recently concerning our American educational dilemma, not one has touched upon the real villain in the drama....
...But it is no more sensible to insist upon a student taking a course he cannot master than to insist upon a machinist's right to the job of drawing magazine illustrations simply because he is a citizen...
...Most students find school far less boring and tedious when they are required to bite into their studies and thus gain the satisfaction of doing a real job...
...It is time for us to be honest with ourselves and with our students...
...The risk is great because, in the six weeks it will take to make the students realize she is serious, she will turn out a staggering number of low marks for students who have a good scholastic standing in all other subjects...
...Yet every time a curve is used to pass very poor students, every student above them must be upgraded accordingly...
...I believe so...
...Once students were separated, the same basic material could be offered each group...
...An "A" in science may mean a potential Einstein...
...Today, students from different high schools, with the same credits on their diplomas, have degrees of masDOROTHY T. SAMUEL is a teacher and free lance writer...
...There is an instinctive respect for fair play in adolescents, and I have yet to have a high school student who did not admit, in time, that he appreciated being rigidly judged by what he actually did...
...At no increase of load or personnel, the present staffs could be enabled to tailor their method of presentation for the needs of college preparatory groups and the needs of non-college preparatory groups...
...There is no way to pass a law making uniform, rigid grading compulsory...
...Take your highest grade...
...The diploma would show the program taken...
...Under this system, which they well understand, none of them is making the slightest effort...
...Colleges have inaugurated special courses in all basic fields to teach entrants the fundamentals they must have for college work...
...Curriculum, teacher candidates, teacher qualifications, school size, plant facilities—important as these all are, we could perfect each of them and still fail to see any substantial improvement in the quality of education received by the majority of our students...
...Those who are above this classification need take nothing too seriously...
...Within the school system, every individual must be allowed freedom to take any offering for which he can qualify and which he is able to pass...
...Just so, right now, many fine young people are miserable in classes where they cannot achieve however hard they may try...
...Obviously, this is an extreme case...
...This man assures me he has some very bright members in that class, capable of doing good work...
...Long before they leave elementary school, they have come to realize that they are in no danger of failing so long as there are a few really slow members in their class...
...he would be miserable in it...
...Has anyone ever suggested the military allow all men to enter and graduate from Officers' Training School...
...This is the way we do it," the superintendent explained...
...tery from 0 to 90 percent...
...Yet it can be done...
...A teacher in the Midwest told me of the situation in the new position he took this year...
...There must be no arbitrary barriers...
...The foundation stone of democracy is equality of opportunity...
...This has been going on for years...
...This villain in the education of American youth is that little technique known as the "curve...
...America says they must educate all youth through high school regardless of academic intelligence...
...He found 'his biology students refused to study...
...To set up these requirements is no more undemocratic than to say every man may have an opportunity for any job for which he can qualify and which he can handle...
...We have reached the stage where a high school diploma means absolutely nothing but certification of hours put in...
...usually they won't tell...
...That made no difference...
...they laughed when he told them they would be graded according to what they achieved...
...Teachers who now teach all levels in a single classroom are certainly qualified to teach all levels in separate classrooms...
...not all school personnel like it...
...After the first test, he was called in by the superintendent for "orientation" in the school's policy on curves...
...Were the states to recognize the differences in academic intelligence, they could require every high school to have at least two separate programs in order to qualify for accreditation and state aid...
...Yet each section would be honestly graded on accomplishment according to those standards...
...To leave the inculcation of a new respect for achievement to the hope that individual teachers and administrators will "buck the system" is to be unrealistic...
...It would be apparent that an "A" in one program did not mean the same depth of study as an "A" in the other program...
...School administrators re-use it to change even those poor grades the teachers do give because "we have to put those students somewhere and get them through...
...She is currently teaching juniors and seniors in American literature, English literature, and journalism at the Winterset (Iowa) Community High School...
...We may enroll our entire school population in science courses under qualified instructors and be no better off than today if those instructors are under obligation to "get them through somehow...
...The position of the schools is understandable...
...Is there a solution...
...Since the majority of the members of any class must pass, they 'will automatically receive the highest grades whatever their actual achievement...
...Individual teachers use it because "I couldn't flunk 25 per cent of the class...
...A few schools, and I am happy to say I have found one, will back up a teacher who is willing to risk her reputation and follow through...
...This is, I believe, a false fear...
...The obvious parent reaction is to assume there is something poor about the quality of instruction in that particular course...
...There is, however, a way to make such grading inevitable if schools are to maintain any rating with employers and colleges...
...The one or two at the very bottom of the ladder may actually receive failing grades...
...As long as students are graded not on the basis of their comprehension but on their relative standing in a given class, the actual rate of accomplishment will continue to go down, down, down...
...it may mean the son of a school board member...
...That is 'D—.' Then you proportion out the marks falling in between...
...In this case, the highest grade had been seventy per cent and the lowest 35 per cent...
...The machinist does not want such a job...
...However, every teacher who has laid out a policy of strict grading has met with the instant response, "But you'll have to put the marks on a curve if none of us do well...
...With different requirements, each group could be graded on the basis of different standards...
...There are those who fear that segregation of students by intellectual abilities will be undemocratic...
...And students respond...
...In schools of a hundred or more students, high school teachers already have two sections of most basic classes...
...Is it undemocratic to segregate students with exceptionally keen physical development into a varsity basketball team and have the others take a general physical training program...
...This must be done in hours taken from the regular college program so that, too, has become less demanding...
...it may mean just a steady plugger who did his assignments with no insight...
...that is 'A.' Take the lowest grade, unless it is more than 15 per cent below all the rest...
...He is a science teacher and a well qualified one...
...Although applied in a thousand different ways by individual school systems and individual teachers, the curve is a flexible device with just one aim: to guarantee passing grades to all but the two or three most nearly moronic students taking any given academic subject...
...In extreme cases, it may mean someone who did nothing and learned nothing...
...Whatever system we set up, however the nation handles this problem, there will be no over-all improvement in the quality of American education until we get rid of that wicked curve which distorts reality for the individual student, the local community, the college, the employer, and the nation...
...The real villain is known only to those actually in the schools...
...non-college people are not inferior citizens suitable only for trade school subjects...
...Those who happen to be in the upper tenth or quarter of ability ranking will receive A's and B's without turning a page of the textbook...
...Yet too few have "bucked...
...Without trying, their natural quickness and intuition will enable them to outstrip most of the class...
...Our schools must be open to every individual of school age...
...Numbers of students graduating, numbers enrolled in certain courses are meaningless in appraising our situation unless there is a definite standard for passing a course...
...Whatever their academic intelligence, American youth are astute and alert...
...A system of state examinations in addition to individual school requirements would insure that schools teach for an established degree of mastery in college preparatory programs...
Vol. 24 • May 1960 • No. 5
