I'm no economist, but I couldn't help but notice after reading a recent article on what teachers really want to tell parents, that all of the social mechanisms supporting one's child in misbehavior, for viewing the teacher as a problem in the way of a child's progress, and for pressuring teachers into increasing the child's grade - I couldn't help but notice that the grade inflation looks very much like the economic bubble that is ready to pop. Like anything arbitrary. such as the recent hype about how Facebook's new changes (as a result of competition with Google+) are going to reinvent the way we experience emotion, we build a castle on air and watch its glory fade in the wind. Or worse, burst and crash in disaster.
“The changes Facebook will roll out on Thursday are designed to enhance the emotional connection its users have to each other through Facebook. These changes will make Facebook a place where nearly everything in your life is enhanced by your social graph. These changes will make it so you know your friends better than you ever thought you could.”
There’s
a simple curve to all of this. In the image to the right, there is a natural
and smooth development of events over time. The horizontal dimension is time,
the vertical, the degree of establishment.
This is roughly the curve one goes through in establishing oneself in life. One
could even describe that the space below that curve is a measure the volume of
earned events, a form of experiential authority.
Take a new company for
example. That company has no clout, but it has what it thinks is a good
product. But no one else believes this. What does it do? It gets endorsements
from people who already do have authority. I (famous person) use this product
nobody has heard of yet. Want to be like me? Want to have something so
exclusive even I use it? In the case of a human being earning experience
through life, we begin, hopefully, with the “endorsement”, i.e., the support,
of our parents, that the attempts we make at establishing ourselves as
self-sufficient and independent, stable individuals is a positive thing, well
worth earning.
Back to the company analogy. At
some point, the company gains a reputation for a good product. It gains
authority because of the product itself, not the endorsements given it. The
fact that more people use it, that it has become something of a norm, speaks
for itself. At that point, perhaps those expensive celebrities can be done away
with. It’s enough to make T-shirts and let the customers themselves endorse the
product.
Wait, what’s that other curve
there? The not so smooth curve? Well, right there where that curve jumps up by
leaps and bounds at point X, somebody is boasting! And doing so without having gotten to that
height of establishment yet. Somehow, a claim was made to unearned authority.
What this is is an attempt to reach the high established ends of the graph
without having earned it. It is groundless, and it is typical of many a
phenomenon in the world. It is revolution vs. evolution. It’s the Zuckerbergs
of the world saying “we are going to change the way you experience emotion.
Sitting on your computers, you are going to learn more about your friends than
you ever thought possible”. And then comes the reality. Well, it was a little
better than before, maybe, but not like you stated it.
The curve of establishment
falls again, and with the negative consequence of a loss of trust at point Y, the
revelation of an empty boast, we find ourselves with a little less clout than
we would have had without the hype. Never cry wolf, goes the saying.
So how does all this relate to
financial bubbles, parents and student grade inflation? Simple. Student grades,
if they are not earned, are castles built out of cloud-stuff. Vapor. And while
it may satisfy the pride of the parents for a day that their son or daughter
got that better score, the day of the fall will come. What happens next on that
curve is pretty clear. More, and further arbitrary means of reinforcing the
child will be made. More revolution. More wind. More baseless and groundless
getting by. Affectation is rough. It is even habit forming.
The child will not only fail
to earn the grades he or she received, but will learn that this is how to
behave in life. That getting what you want is not a matter of slow, hard-earned
and disciplined effort, but one of quick fixes and shiney promising solutions. How
very sad. When the pendulum swings back the other way, though, it swings hard.
There is hope however. Some, but
not all, revolutions have a learning curve as well. Take that path and life
will be, as the image illustrates, a roller coaster. But it can settle down. Endless
revolutions can also act as earned experience of what not to do. Life begins to
settle down at point Z.
That is the student-child
we are speaking of. The teacher has lost some establishment in the process of
that revolution. And every successive parent who comes along supporting that
sort of behavior in the student will remove from the teacher, and from the
profession, this establishment. Don’t get me wrong, some teachers have no
establishment, and to an extent justify the opinion. But on the whole, teachers
are those who have to know the law, work within the curriculum, act as both
nanny (though they shouldn’t) and psychiatrist not just to one patient, but to
20, and these days 30 puberty-stricken patients at a time(!), all while fending
off the stratagems of parents who feel the cloud-castle entitlement of their
children to succeed in this competitive world. No wonder qualified teachers go
elsewhere, where qualification brings more money and more respect.
Parents, make this assumption.
Teachers WANT to give your child a good grade. But their hands are tied. They
measure, and shame on them if they cave in and don’t!, the earned effort and achievement
of your child. If you find your student’s grades rising substantially after you
have a hard talk with the teacher, as opposed to one with your child, expect that
hard times are ahead. The bubble is going to pop. But hey, you earned it!
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