At the beginning of this last school year my youngest two siblings began high school. One day I came home from work for lunch and my mom and I began to talk about where Ryan was in math. She had a sheet that showed all of the classes and what were the prerequisites. As I began looking over this and what Ryan took last year. We came to the conclusion that Ryan wouldn't even be able to take PreCalc before he graduates from high school.
Now normally I wouldn't worry about this, but being a Jenkins he is very smart and no matter who it was we all have taken at least PreCalc in high school. Why is Ryan different, is he dumb? Absolutely not!! What happened is, when all of us were in school we had Pre-Algebra, Algebra and Algebra 2 w/ Trig. So, with Ryan the school system has changed it so you take Pre-Algebra, Algebra A, Algebra B, then Algebra 2 w/ Trig. So, are kids just dumber today than they have been before? Has Math changed since we were in school? Not even close.
We are living in the age of Self-Esteem, Everyone is a winner, and all that crap. This has lead to a lowering of the standard. Because we cannot make anyone feel like they are different from another, we lower the standard and make it so everyone can pass the classes.
This idea is ruining our future. This isn't just happening in our school system. Our government loves to do this to everyone. One type is Affermative Action, here we are saying that Blacks are lesser people and we can't make them work as hard as the rest of us. No, we have to lower the bar for them and so they can just walk over it. We also see this as we understand why AIG and the likes are in trouble. The government lowered the standard on giving out loans so a person that really shouldn't be buying a home is getting one and defaulting on it. So, now these guys are screwed and our nation is in trouble.
As much as everyone wants to deny it, failure is a good thing. This is where we learn from our mistakes and grow. Who would like a trophy for being last place? Too many times, we come up with excuses of why we can't hold someone to a standard.
"Oh, it isn't my fault, I thought my Winnebago came with an AutoPilot." No you were just stupid.
"My kids just aren't as good at soccer as the other team." Tell them to practice more.
"He's just not as smart as his classmates. But, we can't hold him back he would lose all of his friends." Then push him harder, tell him what is going to happen if he doesn't suck it up.
"I was born this way, I didn't choose to be gay." Bull crap, you just want to justify your behavior.
What happens is everyone takes the responsibility and points it to someone or something else and therefore we have to lower the standard because it isn't our fault. Rather than making ourselves responsible for ourselves, and raising our standards up to what is required, it is always someone else's fault.
By allowing this we are giving up our freedoms to make allowances for these "exceptions". In my eyes this is the seeds of socialism. I'm not responsible for myself, the government is supposed to take care of me, and now we are no longer accountable for anything.
Lately I have heard a bunch of ads on the radio about having parents read and teach math to their kids. They talk about how we as a nation used to be the number one creator of scientists and engineers, but now we have lost that position because we have lowered the standard and we are creating a bunch of fat, lazy, whiners. This all because we have lowered the standard in which we hold our youth.
Was Pres. Hinckley inspired when he raised the bar for the missionaries? Absolutely!! Now we need to do the same in every aspect of our lives.
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