No child enjoys homework, tests, or the hours one must put in to do well on both. But these tasks are vital to education — and not just for academic reasons. It is through the mundane work of learning that children learn self-discipline and, more importantly, the lesson that success is not given, but earned.
Small wonder, then, that educators are now doing away with these tools. Self-discipline is just another form of white supremacy, according to the Left, as is the idea that people must actually work for what they want. Thus, testing, grades, and any other form of academic rigor are being discarded as outdated symptoms of systemic racism.
Several school districts nationwide have embraced this move toward “equitable grading,” a system in which students are expected to learn classroom material without ever being rewarded for it or penalized if they fail to do so. Under this new model, homework is assigned but not emphasized, according to the Wall Street Journal, and tests come with multiple retake opportunities — that is, if they are given at all. And behavior, including attendance, is no longer a factor in a student’s final grade because it has “nothing to do with whether they can write a competent, argumentative essay,” according to Tanya Kuhnee, a teacher-support specialist who helped implement equitable grading in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Supporters of this approach say it takes into consideration students with hardships in a way that traditional learning methods don’t. Apparently, only students with stable home lives and intentional parents are able to complete homework assignments and study for exams.
“Classrooms are pressure cookers,” said Joe Feldman, the pioneer of equitable learning. “[Students are] now able to relax, say, ‘I can have a bad day,’ and spend more time on things. It changes the way the classroom feels.”
Equitable learning certainly has changed the way classrooms feel and operate, but not for the better. One student who experienced these grading changes for himself said they incentivized poor work habits and noted that even some of the highest-achieving students in his Las Vegas high school have stopped showing up to class unless there was an exam.
This isn’t just a K-12 phenomenon. More than 80% of four-year colleges said in a recent poll that they don’t intend to require standardized tests, including the SAT and the ACT, in their applications this fall. The reason? Because the tests don’t adequately take into account various socioeconomic factors that might affect an applicant’s score.
Proponents of equitable learning believe they are helping underprivileged students, but in reality, they are setting them up for failure. Very few successful people would be where they are right now if they had not been forced to develop the character and determination required to succeed.
Indeed, equitable education is really its own form of bigotry — one that resigns students to lives of mediocrity by never demanding more from them. Why should children from any background, but especially those facing difficulties, expect to succeed if the adults in their lives have already assumed they won’t?