This is a companion piece to a blog I posted earlier this week. I want us all to consider how poorly served the person is who leaves high school with a diploma and a too limited reading ability. Going through life effectively as a 9 or 10 year old who must deal with the realities of day to day adult life is a travesty.
For those who NEVER read the first blog, New York City Public Schools will issue a diploma to A High School Senior with a 4.9 Reading Level. The Leaders of The City of New York and Those empowered to operate the Public School see this as an adaptation dictated by social necessity. They see this as not blaming the young man or woman who has been brought to this circumstance by events beyond their control.
Yet, I hear the word "abdication" as I read and listen to the powers that be defend this policy! What can be done within the schools to compensate for factors that prevent students from progressing as readers? It might be that other programs will need to sacrificed or be curtailed in order to provide this vital life skill to the children and youth that they serve.
The Washington Post is written on an 8th Grade Reading Level, The New York Times is written on a 12tth Grade reading level. Business contracts are certainly written above the level of a Fourth Grader. In almost anyway you can imagine a Fourth Grader and anyone reading at the level of a Fourth Grader is not equipped to deal with day to day life on their own.
We all know people who do not have the skills or are limited in their processing abilities- it is immoral and inhumane to expect more from people who are unable to do any better. There are such unfortunates.However, To say that every one's life will be easier and "more manageable" if we simply apply the lowest common denominator answer is unfair to the person who does not have the life's experience and maturity to know better.
An Aspirin may cause a severe headache to fade away. However, If the person with the headache as a potentially deadly or crippling condition just saying " Well, The Aspirin seems to be working" sets that person up to be eventually crippled or to die due to that illness! Graduating "Fourth Graders" allows your graduation levels to look better as a statistic and likely frees that student- it allows him or her to be freed of classes and teachers- but at what cost!
When an attorney is defending a 26 year old woman against a charge of murder, What does he think when he looks into that woman's educational records and finds a Fourth Grade Reading level? Is it that, " John F. Kennedy HS sure failed her" ? When a 23 year old man faces a charge of rape, How does the Judge who looks over his record when she discovers his 5.1 Reading Level that he achieved on a test he took during his senior year. Does she wonder, " How do we allow our schools to consider this to be at all adequate?"
We drop our young people through trap doors when we do not wrestle as hard as we can to help them acquire what she or he needs to have a chance to achieve the life that he or she has the capacity and innate ability to secure! I know some students wage war on teachers and when you ask their parents/ guardians for support you are told , " At school, Rose/ Tommy is YOUR problem!", These students, sadly, are choosing to be co-conspirators in their own future bleak destiny. However,If a student is willing to co-operate and has the ability to do well but is under served, Then the fault lies in the teacher, the principal and the greater local school support structure all the way to the chancellor!
- Johnny -
,
No comments:
Post a Comment