Sunday, April 8, 2001

They Do Not Want To Help Smart Kids

**On the topic of social promotion ...
A widespread pandemic spreading like hardy encapsulated fungus spores that unfortunately can withstand all manner of logic.

Phenomenon in which kids are promoted from the current grade to the next even though they _failed_ the schoolwork.  This is done because the school district looks really bad having a 16-year-old in eighth grade.  Or, once again the kid feels really bad because they are surrounded by kids much, much younger than them.

A lot of them say, "how dare the smart kids think they should have more educational opportunities??!  They are already smart, they don’t need any help.  They will get by just fine.  Don’t worry about them.  They are already good enough."

What they really mean is, they think the smart kids should not be able to reach their full potential.  They should just be happy with being average.  “Well, they’re not failing!!  They are doing just fine.”

Therein lies the heart of the problem.  These people that are driving education standards down the drain in this society -- they want everyone to be content with simply “getting by.”  That’s it.  They don’t want for anyone to truly become accomplished.  Or to truly become winners.

They think, "oh they should be happy with just being where they are."  They say, "be happy with who you are."

But wait a minute.  What makes you think that just because I want to have accomplishments and get an education, that this somehow means I am not "happy with myself?"  What if I genuinely do want to improve myself and make my life better, and education has been established as a proven method towards that end?  What if I really do feel happy when I have a sense of accomplishment?

This is just such a weird idea being spread through popular culture like a disease.  This idea that wanting success, wanting accomplishments, wanting to achieve accolades in life, doing exemplary work, setting a goal and then achieving it -- are all somehow clues that a person is unhappy.

I think quite the opposite is true.  You must look at it this way.  If a person participates in a contest, if a person actively is competitive, what this means is that that person is living life.  That person is being active and energetic and is taking part in life.  This person is making positive things happen.

If a person participates in a competition of some sort and then demonstrates that they are the best, I think this shows extraordinary happiness.

a person might have natural, inherent skills and puts those skills to good use by enrolling in training and education.  This training and education earns the person some credentials.  Also, the training helps hone, refine, and sharpen the person's skills so that they may contribute positively to society.  Such as when a person has a natural dexterity for biology and healing, so they decide to go to medical school to become a doctor.  Or if a person has a natural inclination towards finding out how things work, they might major in engineering, so they may usher in the next generation of technological advancements.  This is all because they are very happy with who they are, and they want to become even better.  They want to improve themselves.  They want to be the best version of themselves.

It is such a counterintuitive, nonplussing idea that it took me this long to even write a coherent essay in rebuttal.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment