Self-esteem has been placed ahead of the more essential requirement to perform as requested in America.
With that in mind, these are possible consequences that may be used to impress upon schoolchildren the importance of proper attention to grades, attendance, and attire:
- Poor academic performance, measured by GPA, should be identified by shaving the head of the student. This isn’t harmful, but many students do not want to be bald. It immediately indicates that the student did poorly in their classes, to everyone. Cheating should also result in baldness, it is a reflection of poor academic values.
- Failure to comply with the dress code should be addressed by covering the offending child in a bright orange prison jumpsuit.
- Students who arrive late for school or classes should be used to pick up litter around the building, after school. They should be required to assist the janitors.
Parents should not be able to overrule these policies. Many parents failed their children by allowing them to believe the school was too harsh or the classes were not valuable. If a school is unfair occassionally, either deliberately or by oversight, that is okay. Unfairness is part of life as well.
In the ‘real world’, the punishment for failing to meet standards is losing your job, and the consequences are serious. Allowing children to grow up believing that they don’t have to do things they don’t like, that they are ‘good’ even when they aren’t is doing them a tremendous disservice.
The reward for doing well in school is a better life. It is having choices for the future - which college to go to, a job that you enjoy, and financial rewards for doing well. Short term rewards in school such as being paid for good grades defeat the importance of working toward a vital, long term goal.
Wake up!!!!