Hi everyone. In this education post, I talk about the dangers of passing failing students.
Some Places & Teachers Do Let Failing Students Pass
The word failure has a negative connotation/meaning. Failing at something means that one did not do enough to make it through a school course or meet expectations.
There are some places and some teachers who let students pass a test or course even though they should have failed. Some marking adjustments may have been made for the whole class which puts at risk students to a passing grade.
Giving In To Parents
In order to please the parents, some teachers decide to pass the student instead of fail the student. Students who have failed a course have to spend time and money to retake a course. Some teachers may be worried about angry and entitled parents when they hear that their child failed a course.
Cannot Reward Incompetence
Failure is not easy to deal with for students, kids and adults at any moment in life. In the school setting, it is not right to let students pass a course if they are not good enough to pass. Incompetence should not be rewarded. It is one thing if a student has a learning disability, tries hard and does not pass. If a student does not really try hard in the course and has a low score then that student should not pass.
Ending Up With Teens & Adults Who Can't Read, Listen, Write, Think Or Do Basic Math
The motivation behind this post is based on Youtube videos like the ones below. There are also some Reddit posts and articles that point out students that can't read.
Videos like these are claiming that kids/teens are graduating but they can't read. It seems that the students mentioned are based in the United States. It is not known which states the students are in.
There may have been selection bias where the information has been cherry picked to feed claims. Regardless of how many cases there are, the existence of young students graduating and going to college without being able to read or think is disturbing.
Good Scores But Low Ability
It is very dishonest and unethical to say that the kids are scoring high but they end up not being able to read, write, think and do basic math. You end up with youths turning into adults who cannot deal with job responsibilities, integrating with society and not being able to detect lies.
One could argue that this lack of teaching and negligence is done on purpose by the state. You have a generation that grows up to be not so knowledgeable and low skilled so they can be manipulated in the workplace and (unfortunately) by companies and politicians.
Looking at the bigger picture, if a large portion of a generation is not very knowledgeable or skilled then the workforce in a region or country suffers. Not being able to read is not good if a job requires following written directions. Not being able to think is really bad for jobs that require problem solving and finding solutions. Incompetence and low skills can be dangerous in certain lines of work. Having a doctor that can't read sounds really scary. Having a lawyer that cannot read sound awful too.
About Not Being Able To Do Math
Yes I am a math person. I do think that people can navigate through life fine if math is not their strong suit. A good baseline level of math does help with shopping, tipping, determining if a sale is worth it or not, converting money in different currencies, etc.
As math is hard for many, it is socially acceptable for people to not be great in math. Not being good in reading, writing, listening and thinking is really bad.
Students who get pass through the grades not being able to do basics is a system failure. These students are told that they have high scores but cannot function well. There is a lot time wasted that these youths cannot get back.
Thank you for reading.