What IS Perfection?
I sent the letter below to the Pendleton County Board of Education LAST year. I did not receive a comment or even an acknowledgement. This year we are once again "perfect" awards where there is no perfection. I find this VERY disturbing.
In all the years I have worked in the school system or been involved as a parent volunteer, this is the only time that I have felt compelled to voice my concern regarding a school policy. Regardless of whether this concern is addressed, I will feel better having shared my feeling on the subject.
It is my understanding that an updated attendance policy is being developed for the district; one that will consider missing ½ day or less “Perfect” attendance. I agree that missing less than ½ day is commendable, but it is NOT perfect. Do we want to teach our students that less than 100% is perfect?
According to Webster’s On-line Dictionary, perfect means: 1 a : being entirely without fault or defect : b : satisfying all requirements : ACCURATE c : corresponding to an ideal standard
Do we want the community to believe that we do not know the correct meaning of the word? Do we want to let the entire community know that we believe that less than 100% is perfect? I don’t. I want to set high standards for our students.
If the board feels it is important to reward students who have missed ½ day or less - that is great. I agree that is an accomplishment, but it should not be considered as high an achievement as not having missed any. Wouldn’t it be demeaning to the TRUE perfect attendees to have those that missed some time be rewarded in the same manner. On the other hand, if you give a perfect attendance award to a student who does not have perfect attendance, isn’t that a shallow reward?
Let’s have two levels of attendance awards. Continue to honor the TRUE perfect attendees and then also recognize the Attendance Achievers - those who have missed ½ day or less. If this cannot be considered, we just as well change our grading scale to reflect 90% as an A - after all, it is - almost.
In all the years I have worked in the school system or been involved as a parent volunteer, this is the only time that I have felt compelled to voice my concern regarding a school policy. Regardless of whether this concern is addressed, I will feel better having shared my feeling on the subject.
It is my understanding that an updated attendance policy is being developed for the district; one that will consider missing ½ day or less “Perfect” attendance. I agree that missing less than ½ day is commendable, but it is NOT perfect. Do we want to teach our students that less than 100% is perfect?
According to Webster’s On-line Dictionary, perfect means: 1 a : being entirely without fault or defect : b : satisfying all requirements : ACCURATE c : corresponding to an ideal standard
Do we want the community to believe that we do not know the correct meaning of the word? Do we want to let the entire community know that we believe that less than 100% is perfect? I don’t. I want to set high standards for our students.
If the board feels it is important to reward students who have missed ½ day or less - that is great. I agree that is an accomplishment, but it should not be considered as high an achievement as not having missed any. Wouldn’t it be demeaning to the TRUE perfect attendees to have those that missed some time be rewarded in the same manner. On the other hand, if you give a perfect attendance award to a student who does not have perfect attendance, isn’t that a shallow reward?
Let’s have two levels of attendance awards. Continue to honor the TRUE perfect attendees and then also recognize the Attendance Achievers - those who have missed ½ day or less. If this cannot be considered, we just as well change our grading scale to reflect 90% as an A - after all, it is - almost.
posted by SMSSecretary at 8:14 PM
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