The things that go through my head

It did make it into the paper after all.  I am very proud of myself.  Go me!

I was annoyed about the recent kerfuffle over Nutana’s proposal to do away with failing grades. I sent the Star Phoenix this letter on Friday but they decided not to print it. I would like to think they made this editorial decision based on the fact that they basically wrote the same thing in the forum section today. But with more words and less awesome. That thought is holding my ego together. Here goes nothing, I hope you like it.

Collegiate Renewal

I am very disappointed about the recent bad press in regards to Nutana Collegiate’s proposal to abolish failing grades. I would encourage anyone who wishes to criticize this proposal to do a little research in order to have an informed opinion. This proposal will be a very minor change. It does not mean that students will be pushed ahead if they have not completed a course. A grade of 49% or under indicates that a student has not yet met the course requirements. Thus, putting an “incomplete” on the transcript is quite accurate.

This initiative is just one of many ideas that are being proposed as part of the Saskatoon public school board’s collegiate renewal initiative. There are many reasons why education remains beyond the reach of many people. We really need to do a better job of being inclusive and focusing on learning rather than grading. Learning can not be summed up by a letter or number grade. We need to examine why so many people continue to be frustrated with school. This will require members of the public and the media to be more informed about what this requires. I would encourage everyone to read readily available public documents which are accessible on the school boards’ web site at www.spsd.sk.ca. There are many interesting schools of thought regarding traditional grading practices that need to be examined and discussed in a meaningful way. The works of Ann Davies and Alfie Kohn would be a good place to start. Hopefully we can move beyond meaningless criticism and have an intelligent conversation about educational reform.

You may recall that at the beginning of summer there was a bit of controversy over Dr. Henry Morgentaler receiving the order of Canada. Well, Bronwyn Eyre, a cringe-inducing editorialist at the Star Phoenix published a screed that was painful for me to read and required a response from me. I just could not let her anti-feminist sentiments go.

I do realize that thanks to a successful public relations campaign from the likes of hateful jerks like Rush Limbaugh that most people wouldn’t touch feminism with a ten foot pole. So I fully expect men to have their worthless anti-feminist opinions published in the newspaper. But when that kind of garbage comes from a woman, it really burns my britches. So here you go, the unpublished LTE. Read more…