Children are Drowning in a Sea of Numbers
A disadvantage of public education
Numbers, numbers everywhere
I don’t particularly hate numbers.
Numbers tell me that I have money left in the bank after buying Christmas presents.
Numbers tell me how many seconds are left before New Year's Day.
Numbers tell birthdays and other holidays.
The problem I have with numbers is that they are used as the sole identifier of student achievement in public schools, today.
Think about your class valedictorian and salutatorian. Those are the two people who attained the highest GPA in high school. However, they were only chosen on one factor — an achievement in academics.
I wonder, did that achievement correlate to success in life after high school?
In my seven years of teaching in public education, both in middle school and elementary school, I saw numbers as a detriment to education.
The purpose of grades
I no longer teach in public schools. I homeschool my nine-year-old daughter and two-year-old son. The other day, while in the car, my daughter asked me, “Is 4th grade when you start getting grades?”
