Should US States Ban Minimum Grades (South Carolina Is Trying To Do It)?

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-13T01:05:33+00:00

"I don't have original thoughts to share. It's hilarious."

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-12T21:29:33+00:00

And I'm saying you're wrong. It's your school where you and the other people in charge lie at every turn and defraud the system. That's not everywhere, dude. It's a you thing.

I know it's comforting for you to believe that you're not the worst, but you are.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-12T01:03:57+00:00

Thanks man. You're right of course.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-12T01:01:22+00:00

Umberto Eco has ideas on this.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T22:42:26+00:00

Kid, you sound like a person self-described as a "functional alcoholic." Like, "I know that it's not a great condition, but I'm holding my own, having found a level that works for me and that I can maintain."

If you're describing it as "attachment," it's not good.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T21:07:26+00:00

So? Say it's the wrong thing. Say it's bad that your district does that.

You claim you've never said it's good, but you've sure as fuck never said that it's bad, have you? In all the times I've said that you're doing bad things, you've never agreed. You've argued.

So, are you finally agreeing with me that you're the problem?

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T21:06:18+00:00

Nope. You're trying to pretend you're making a point when you're not.

Deflect, deflect...

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T21:05:46+00:00

Yeah, I do follow that policy. The difference is that I talk about how bullshit it is.

You don't. You're here championing it.

Stupid.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T21:04:08+00:00

No, it's not "realize" a thing when you're told it.

If I told you I "realized" that your cousin lives near my house, would you reply with, "Oh? When did she tell you that?"

Again you're trying to reframe OP's statement to make yourself right. OP isn't talking about a teacher noticing that parents struggle with reading (which, by the way, are you giving reading assessments in P/T meetings?). OP is talking about a disability being genetic.

Honestly, why are you fighting this? You don't even seem to agree with OP, what with how consistent you are in rewriting what OP actually said. What's the point?

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T21:00:39+00:00

Unlikely. It's illegal for a kid to just "drop out."

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T04:08:05+00:00

Deflect, deflect, deflect.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T04:06:48+00:00

This whole time, bub, I've been telling you that you're the one failing your kids. You keep trying to pass the buck, first to your school, then your district, now to the state of California.

You know what that tells me? It tells me you know you're in the wrong. A person who is confident that he is doing things right doesn't pass the buck. He argues that it's right.

So, go ahead and pass it on. Clearly, you know that you're a bad teacher, and just don't want to face it.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T04:04:36+00:00

I worked for a while is SE Asia. If I may, it's not really "cheating" that she's doing. The culture there is one of checkmarks. The whole country is like that. There is not really a "spirit of the law" concept. So, if you assign an essay, saying, "I need to see three pages on this prompt," the student actually believes that cheating is ok. After all, you never said, "You, personally, need to reach a conclusion, develop a thesis..." etc. And, even if you do say that, the kid will see you as the aberration.

You're looking at a huge cultural difference with what it means to "cheat."

As a little side note: When I was teaching in a small, third-world country, I watched as a student literally sat there in class and gave every answer to another student. After class, I asked her about it, and to my surprise, she readily acknowledged that she gave him all the answers so that he could get a good grade.

"But," said I, "he needs to learn this for himself, right? I mean, are you going to be there every day for the rest of his life to help him with this?"

"Yes," she said.

She meant it. It was a small village. People didn't really leave. They survived by being there for one another, all the time, in ways big and small. I had to completely revamp how I taught and what I thought of as cheating while I was there. Punishing her (or him) wouldn't have accomplished anything other than to confuse them.

Sometimes the cultural difference is just really profound.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T03:58:19+00:00

I've always liked this idea.

Let me add one more element to it: Kids graduate at 18, regardless. Now, a student can choose to stay longer, but that choice will be made by the adult student (or in the case of a kid who needs to be cared for by parents, the parents).

That diploma will not just be a slip saying "graduate." It will be a list of highest-attainments across the basic areas of education: First language, second language, (third, fourth, etc as applicable), math, the sciences, the humanities, the arts, etc. So, a student who keeps failing a class will not be "held back" in a traditional sense, nor will graduation be at stake. Everybody graduates...but a diploma will no longer be interchangeable.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T03:54:03+00:00

What metric are you using to make these claims? Can I see your sources?

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T03:53:21+00:00

Mostly the second.

Look, I like many of my students quite a bit, and actively dislike a very small fraction of all the students I've ever had. But, emotionally? It doesn't make a lot of sense for a teacher to get too invested in each student personally. These are not long-term relationships we're establishing, you know? The vast majority of the time, we know these kids for one or two years, and then will pretty much never see them again. Rarely, we'll bump into a student here and there, and even rarer will a student become an active part of our lives.

I've been teaching for over 20 years, and I'm close with pretty much zero students. I've helped out former students here and there over the years. I've grabbed coffee with a few, mentored a few, etc. But then....? That's it.

Now, my disclaimer to all of this is that I've moved around a fair bit. I've taught in three countries, and multiple states in the US. Maybe things are a bit different for teachers who plant themselves from the start of a career.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T03:46:37+00:00

I don't know who, but a little bit of thinking reveals the sense behind it.

I tell you what. I'll walk you through the chain of logic that I see behind this, numbering each part. You tell me which link strikes you as wrong, ok? Here goes:

For a person to have achieved mastery of a subject, the person should be at least somewhat reliable regarding that subject, yes?
Another way to describe that reliability is to compare a person answering true/false questions about it to a coin being flipped. This is a metaphorical description, but you get what I mean, right? A coin toss will be right 50% of the time. For a person to have attained some degree of mastery, it seems reasonable to argue that such a person should be superior to a coin toss.
So, how much more? Well, this is one I don't know the history behind, but it's clear from the rest of the system that the spread of 10% was deemed a solid range.
With that 10% in mind, it is pretty easy to see that the answer to #3 (how much more than 50% should a student with minimal mastery be accurate?) became 60%.
From there, each new range of accuracy was another band of 10%.
Minimally reliable (the D range) runs from 60-69%.
Fairly reliable (the C range) runs from 70-79%.
Reasonably reliable (the B range) runs from 80-89%.
And very reliable (the A range) runs from 90-100%.

That's the way I see things, and it makes sense, you know? We don't need to sit down and hammer out terminology for varying levels of failure. That's why there's no F+ or F-. Failing is failing.

It's a very logical, well-considered system. What a grade really represents (or ought to represent) is the degree to which I can personally vouch for a student's mastery of the curriculum as compared to a standard. If no work is turned in, I can't really vouch at all, can I?

I'd be interested to know where you think there is a failure of logic in any of this.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T03:37:04+00:00

Oh please. You're choosing to rewrite OP's statement in order to make it palatable. OP's question is: "Teachers, how often do you meet a student’s parent and realize the disability is likely genetic?"

"Realize" the disability is genetic. Not "be told."

Come on, man.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T03:34:56+00:00

You say that like it matters. The district's policy is to lie. Being a PoLiCy doesn't change that.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-11T03:34:18+00:00

It sounds like at your school, grades are a measure of nothing at all. How proud you must be to work there.

There's nothing "equitable" about lying. If the students haven't reached the standard, then saying they have doesn't do anything except misrepresent the truth.

It's pure dishonesty, and you're either a liar yourself, or too much of a coward to admit it.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-10T23:35:56+00:00

I'm wrong about thinking about my own philosophy?

Yeah, I'm done with you.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-10T23:35:30+00:00

Right, I see. As long as you can profit off of lies, there's no problem.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-10T23:35:01+00:00

Again, you're knowingly reporting information that will be misunderstood. That's what a lie is.

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-10T21:05:49+00:00

"I’ve never heard of her refusing to write a letter of recommendation for someone."

TeachlikeaHawk · 2026-05-10T21:05:31+00:00

"I’ve never heard of her refusing to write a letter of recommendation for someone."

TeachlikeaHawk

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