A Readers Response to: Grade point averages create school ‘segregation’ Bee Letter to the Editor
By Jim Bonetti
In response to a letter printed by the Modesto Bee from a lady in Escalon called “Grade point averages create school ‘segregation'”.
She takes exception to the achievement system in this school claiming that some students will feel discriminated against.
“Competition” (Photo credit: mbgrigby)
Only in HER mind. She thinks teaching kids to compete is wrong. Well, everything done in this world is through competition! It’s better to teach your kids to learn and compete at a young age because when they grow up and get out into the big, cruel world, they will have to compete for jobs, a residence, a good woman or man as the case may be, etc.
How does a parent help to prepare their child for the “real world” following high school graduation? As most children are not home schooled, most parents rely on the public school system to do that for them. However, the duty of parents is to help their kids learn priorities in life.
When kids are young, they need to apply themselves in school. They learn academics in school and values, attitudes and responsibilities at home, maybe with the threat of “no homework, no X-box”. When this is done, the child has a good chance to become a responsible, otherwise parents send self-destructive messages to their kids.
Parents naturally want their kids to be independent and self-supporting. If parents don’t teach their kids good attitudes and values, then they are the ones who will wind up supporting them or the public welfare system will have to. There are already too many people on the public dole! And I don’t mean Social Security or Medicare, as those belong ONLY to the folds who have contributed to them!
So, the schools handing out colored cards for achievement and privilege is a good thing. This is nothing new and there’s nothing wrong with it either. We didn’t have cards in my day because there were no cards for anything except playing cards. But we did have clubs to belong to like C.S.F. (California Scholarship Federation) and others. I never belonged to a scholastic club like that because I was not an academic, outside of geometry and mechanical drawing. But life was different then and I was later able to enroll in a school for plumbing and spent my life working at it and did well for myself.
By Jim Bonetti
Eye On Modesto 