Consider the whole student. Do schools?
Today was another reminder of the educational system at its finest. I have mentioned Poetry Out Loud more than once lately. Yesterday, students who were nominated by their teachers (I nominated three of my 160) got to perform poems to a panel/audience. Kind of daunting. About 35 nominated kids got to do this. A list of top students was picked at the end.
I do not personally know the winner, so I will be more vague than I want to be. It needs to be written that the winner has a GPA that is not attractive to most four-year universities. I do not know the winner’s plans after high school, but maybe this person should find something where “the whole person” is considered, something that doesn’t just focus on A through G requirements and test scores. Every now and again, a winner like this comes along, which SHOULD make us rethink our priorities–if this person is successful enough to beat out 30+ other students who were all nominated because they previously performed their poems well, then perhaps there should be some better options for this person to succeed. Since everyone at our school, technically, participated in Poetry Out Loud, this winner bested EVERY student at school.
Last year, both graduation speakers were not A through G eligible. That means they had received grades that were low enough to exclude them from attending four-year universities right out of high school. We had two graduation speakers–both had received a grade less than a C. I was the teacher who gave one of the students her only D. This student was always a great speaker, has a charisma and charm to her, and wants to be a chef in the future. North High offers Speech for her, which she took and received an A. I also had this girl again during her senior year, where she received an A in English APN, a class with media literacy and community service worked into the curriculum. She’s awesome, and got to show it in Speech and APN. North High offers no cooking classes.
This girl did not have grades attractive to four-year universities.
I had another girl with similar grades want to paint my room’s back wall. She worked diligently, even coming in on a weekend, and finished it. On paper, this girl looks average. My wall looks cool.
Lately, the non-amazing-GPA kids have been winning Mind Madness, a Jeopardy-meets-College-Bowl kind of tournament featuring teams of four in a March Madness bracket. A few years ago, an APN team of just regular kids won the tourney. Three of the kids had under a 3.0 GPA, while the other kid had around a 3.8 (and ended up at Long Beach State). They won all their matches, defeating a team in the finals that all started out at really good four-year universities (Cal, Irvine, Cal Poly SLO, UC Santa Barbara). The final wasn’t even close.
I have more examples, but the issue is simple to me–how are these kids succeeding against their peers who look WAY better on paper? What are we measuring grade-wise that lets students win competitions against other students with GPAs a full two points higher than theirs? And, are these students who are succeeding in competitions not succeeding in school (gradewise) because we don’t afford them the opportunity to do so?
Because, obviously, there’s more to them. Reading and writing are only a part of reading, writing, listening, and speaking.