High School Lite

(Those who don't want to read my first attempt at being a policy wonk- feel free to skip this entry.)

MSNBC just published an article on their website announcing that a lot of students have deemed their high school classes "too easy".

This is not a good thing.

If it's gotten to the point where even the students realize they're not being challenged, that means that the status quo has been less than adequate for some time now. From my years in teaching, I can see how the expectations would slowly drop every year until they almost didn't exist.

Increasingly, our students are facing "High School Lite", where responsibilities disappear and leisure time is at an all-time high.

Some of it is behavioral- it's difficult to expect much from your students when they willingly staple their own arms and hit each other at a moment's notice. You can't (realistically) fail them all, so you create a fake goal that you hope they can reach. In my class from hell, for example, I placed the bar so low that I'm sure there are mentally disabled chimps who would stand a chance at passing, had they tried. (Amazingly, a few of my students did fail after all.)

There is also a financial element.

Wealthy parents who constantly bribe their children with brand-new cars and every technological gadget on the market shouldn't be surprised when their child displays no signs of inner drive- why move when the good stuff is sitting in your lap?

On the contrary, poor students often suffer the same fate from a different direction. Why push yourself when you see your parents work hard everyday and yet they still struggle to pay the bills? Is it not better to just slide by and struggle to pay the bills? You're still broke, but not quite so tired. (Understand that this is not a logical statement, but an example of how an underprivileged child might construe the situation.)

That leaves the middle class- that group who has enough money to always eat and yet too little money to forget its worth. Our leaders will rise from them.

But wait- that group is beginning to disappear-

Is it a coincidence that the middle class is largely disappearing right around the same time the "healthy workhorse" mentality is leaving our schools?

I doubt it.

Lastly, there's a perverted sense of latent racism surrounding our schools. Most (white) teachers subconsciously expect less form DeMarcus than Hunter, which impinges upon DeMarcus that not succeeding is okay- the norm. This is inherently deadly, and I'm guessing partly responsible for the phenomenom I saw in high school. I call it "acting white", and I witnessed it more times- while attending and teaching- than I care to admit.

Briefly, "acting white" occurs when a black student attempts to work in class. Almost immediately his peers, anxious and threatened by his efforts, label him as "acting white" and he is separated from the group until he returns to mirror their behavior. This is an incredibly powerful tactic. By doing this, they reaffirm the stereotype society has labeled them with, partly because it's understood and comfortable. Most of the time, I was helpless to stop it- I can't compete with the acceptance of someone's friends. Precious few things can.

If I were on the advisory board of the NAACP, I would definitely bring this to their immediate attention. If they're not careful, tradition will take hold and it will be generations before certain black students push themselves- fostering, especially in the inner city, "High School Lite."