Re: [arn-l Digest] Attandance v. Achievement

[Cathy Marciniak <cathmarc@sbcglobal.net>]

I really like to play with this PE grading model.  In the tradition of "when
in Rome", I talk to Texans about football. There's not a high school in the
state of Texas that just has *one* football team.  Here, we have a Varsity,
a JV, a Freshman, and an intramural league (at that, even our varsity
linebackers are small for the league, but I digress.) So why do we insist on
honoring only our varsity level learners, our pre-college students, in the
curriculum?  

In my more twisted moments I like to imagine telling one of these football
coaches, "This year THEY. WILL. ALL. PLAY.  FOOTBALL.  No exceptions.   No
whining.  The ones who excel at hockey, or at chess, or golf.  WILL PLAY
FOOTBALL.  The ones who think of *soccer* when you say the word "football."
WILL PLAY FOOTBALL.   The ones who are 5'3" and weigh 120 pounds soaking
wet.  WILL PLAY FOOTBALL.  You got that?  THEY WILL ALL PLAY FOOTBALL.  And,
don't even think about shortchanging them with jv standards, either.  They
will all play VARSITY FOOTBALL.  Now get out there and bring me back a
winning season, for the Global Economy."

You know, when a concept is so stupid, so eaten up with ignorance, that even
an athletic director would be horrified by it, it had to have come from a
state legislature. 

-- Cathy



>Most PE courses (gym) are scored on the number of
>absences and makes some sense--if the classes count for something than
>there is a drastic difference between kids with specific athletic
>abilities, no such abilities and disabilities. So either you grade on
>"effort" (obviously quite subjective and still allows for discrimination),
>grade on "attendance" or not grade. Why anyone would care how many classes
>student has missed if it has not affected his performance is beyond me,
>except for the purpose of telling the kids who is the boss. I file it under
>the same idiotic trends as uniforms and zero-tolerance. No one wants to
>take responsibility in individual cases--it's much easier to avoid making
>decisions by using sweeping overbroad rules.