Thursday, February 22, 2007

What should students "have" when they leave AHS?

During our last 21C meeting we discussed the skills that students should possess when leaving AHS. Something that happened today made me think about this. How about they possess the skill to exercise common decency, or in the absence of common decency, at least common sense? Today a teacher in my department showed me a student’s test, in which the student stated that gay people should be shot. (The question had nothing to do with gays or weapons, or anything remotely close, by the way.) The teacher took the test to an administrator and then called the parent, and then had to explain to the parent why the student’s writing warranted being shown to an administrator. While the entire episode frustrates me beyond belief, I will say a few things.
1. I would like to think that Arapahoe students have learned that advocating violence against others is never proper.
2. I would like to think that Arapahoe students have learned to behave with decency toward others.
3. I would like to think that Arapahoe students have learned to exercise some degree of common sense before going out into the wider world.
The last is clearly laughable, but what about the first two? Of course, how can we really compete with the wider world? We’re “just” teachers, not wealthy retired professional athletes.

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