Excerpt
from The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck--101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers
by Ron Clark
Not Every Child Deserves a Cookie
Last year one of our new fifth graders was really struggling.
He entered RCA below grade level in every subject and he was
failing several courses. When I met with his mom she defended
her son by saying, "Well, he made all A's at his other school."
When I told her that was shocking, she explained that he had
done so well because he had a really great teacher. Urgh!
There is a misconception in our country that teachers whose
students make good grades are providing them with a good
education. Parents, administrators, and the general communiry
shouldn't assume good grades equal high academic mastery. In
fact, in many cases those teachers could be giving good grades
to avoid conflict with the parents and administration. It's
easier to fly under the radar and give high grades than to give
a student what he or she truly deserves and face the scrutiny of
the administtation and the wrath of an angry parent.
I have attended numerous awards ceremonies where practically
every child in the class received an honor roll certificate.
Parents always cheer, take pictures, and look so proud. I just
sit there and think, Ignorance is bliss. Are these kids
really being challenged, or are they only achieving mediocre
standards set forth by a mediocre teacher in an educational
system that is struggling to challenge even our average
students? Yet, all of the parents look so proud and
content.
The worst part about it, however, is that I am afraid most
parents would rather their child get a good education where they
received straight A's and praise than an outstanding
education where they struggled and received C's.
At the beginning of every year, I give my fifth graders an
assignment. They have to read a book and present a project on
one of its characters -- specifically, they have to figure out a
way to cleverly show such details as what the individual kept in
his heart (what he loved the most), saw with his eyes (his view
of the world), "stood for" with his feet, and held to strongly
in his backbone (his convictions). I encourage the students to
"bring it" and to use creativity and innovation to bring the
body of the character to life.
Most of the students will bring a trifold where they have
drawn a body and labeled the locations. Some will use glitter,
and some will be quite colorful. I am sure in most classrooms
the projects would receive high grades, mostly A's and B's. I,
however, hand out grades of 14, 20, 42, and other failing marks.
The parents and students are always upset, and many want an
explanation.
I ask them to trust me, and I explain that if I gave those
projects A's and B's, then the students wouldn't see a reason to
improve their efforts on their next assignment. Some staff
members have even said, "Ron, but you know what that child is
dealing with in her home, and you know she did that project all
by herself." I quickly tell them that society isn't going to
make excuses for their home situations, and we can't either. If
we make excuses and allowances, it will send the child the
message that it's okay to make excuses for his or her
performance based on circumstances, too. We just can't do it. We
must hold every child accountable for high standards and do all
we can to push the child to that level.
I recall giving one fifth-grade student a failing grade on her
first project. She cried and cried. She had never made less than
an A on her report card, and her mother was devastated, too. I
explained that the low grade would be a valuable life lesson,
and I gave the young girl, and the rest of the class, tips and
strategies for receiving a higher score in the future. I showed
them an example of a project that would have scored 70, a
project in the 80s, and a project that would have earned an A.
I was pleased to see that her next project came to life with
New York City skyscrapers that were sculpted from clay,
miniature billboards that contained academic content, and
streetlights that actually worked. The project was much, much
better, and it received a 70.
As a final project, the students were instructed to create a
time line that would contain a minimum of fifty significant
dates in the history of a specific area of the world. The same
young lady brought in her final assignment wrapped in trash
bags. Removing it, I saw a huge, four-foot pyramid, a replica of
the Great Pyramid of Giza. The student had made it out of
cardboard and apparently had used sandpaper to make it feel like
a real pyramid. It was beautiful, but it didn't contain a time
line, so I told her the grade would not be passing.
She grinned at me, walked over to the pyramid, touched the top
point, and suddenly three sides slowly fell open, revealing the
inside. She had carved her outline on the inside, using detailed
pictures, graphs, and descriptions of 150 major events. She even
had hand-carved Egyptian artifacts and placed them throughout
the inside of the pyramid, just as you would find in the tomb of
a great pharaoh. She had handmade mummies that she had learned
how to make on the Internet. She looked at me and said, "Mr.
Clark, I have worked on this for weeks. I wanted it to be good
enough. I wanted it to be an A." It was miraculous and
spectacular. I looked at her, full of pride, and said with a
smile, "Darling, it's an A."
If her initial project hadn't been an F, she never would have
walked in with that pyramid. That child is about to graduate
RCA, and she is ready to compete with any high school student
across the country. She knows what high expectations are, she
understands the value of a strong work ethic, and she knows how
to achieve excellence. If we continue to dumb down education and
to give students A's and B's because they "tried," we are doing
them a disservice and failing to prepare them to be successful
in the real world. That young lady couldn't walk into an elite
high school and compete with a glitter-filled trifold. However,
she can walk into any high school with that pyramid and her
overall knowledge of how to achieve that type of excellence and
stand high above her peers.
I often bake cookies for my students. I tell them it is my
great-greatgrandma's recipe and that she handed it to me in
secret on her deathbed. (Okay, a stretch.) As I pass out the
cookies, the kids who are working hard receive one with delight;
the students who aren't working as hard do not. Parents will
call and say, "Mr. Clark, I heard you gave every child in the
class a cookie except my child. Why are you picking on my
child?"
Why does every child have to get the cookie? The parents claim
that I will hurt the child's self-esteem. Has it really gotten
to the point that we are so concerned with our children's
self-esteem that we aren't realistic with them about their
performance and abilities? If we give "cookies" when they aren't
deserved, then we are telling our young people that they don't
need to work hard to receive rewards. We are sending a message
that the cookie will always come. That is why we have so many
young people in their twenties who have no idea what it means to
work hard. And that is why they are still looking to their
parents to provide support (and to give them the cookie).
I tell my students who don't receive a cookie that I will be
baking cookies the following week. I tell them that I will watch
them until that time and that if they are trying hard they'll
earn their cookie. It is shocking to see how much effort kids,
regardless of their age, will display to get a cookie. And when
it is earned, it means something. The students will glow with
pride, and they will explain how they are going to eat half the
cookie then and save the other half for later. Also, it tastes
better than any cookie they have ever eaten, and it sends the
message that with hard work comes rewards. If parents and
teachers are just rewarding our kids without cause, we aren't
teaching the value of personal effort.
We all need to teach our young people that not everyone
deserves a pat on the back just because we are attempting to
make everyone feel good. Giving praise that isn't earned only
sets up our students for more failure in the long run.
If you are a teacher who wants to increase expectations but is
afraid of the backlash from giving failing grades on assignments
that will cause your parents and administration to freak out,
there are some steps you can take to protect yourself When you
give an assignment, show your students beforehand what you
expect. Show a detailed description of what would earn a failing
grade, a passing grade, and an outstanding grade. Share that
with your administration as well to make sure it meets their
approval, and then make your parents understand the
expectations. Letting everyone know what is expected beforehand
will leave no opportuniry for complaints after the grades have
been given.
If you are going to give rewards, such as cookies, let the
parents know the classroom behaviors that will earn the reward
and the behaviors that will not. When students are struggling,
let the parents know specifically the areas that need to be
addressed. If the child still does not meet the criteria, you
have been clear about your expectations and therefore negative
conflicts can be avoided.
The above is an excerpt from the book The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck -- 101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers by Ron Clark. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.
Copyright © 2011 by Ron L. Clark, Inc, author of The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck -- 101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers