She was an honor roll student, she worked very hard all her life to make it to her senior year only to be denied the honor of walking across the stage…with her friends. Why? She failed one of the required tests that she needs to graduate. Wow…how could a honors student, fail a required test to graduate? I realize it’s possible, but isn’t that what separates good from great? Qualified from unqualified, ready from not ready? There is no way, I would want a doctor, who studied for years, and fails to pass the board certification to perform heart surgery. Should the board make an exception because he was an honors student? The school district, located close to Cobb county, has a stricken policy that states, “all required test, must he passed in order for student to participate in the graduation ceremony. To make matters worst, the mother of the student, wants the school to make an exception. Go figure, your child fails to meet the requirements and we want the rules bent, make an exception because it’s not fair. What a lesson to teach any child, “it’s okay to fail, why? The world will make an exception for you”.
There was no shame in the girl who was a honors student, failed to meet the requirement. She failed a portion of the social studies exam. That sounds like an oxymoron, how can you be on the honors roll and fail an exam? Did her school grade on a curve?
How will our children learn the lessons that life has, when the consequences for lack of preparation and focus are ignored and someone is standing by to make exceptions for them? When failing is not enough, the reality of the consequences should be experienced. If the child fails the test (especially after being tutored) no exceptions should be made just to the can graduate with their friends. It’s not fair to the friends who passed all the exams and they were more than likely not on the honors roll.
If I fail the exam ( no matter how much I study) for the military or a job, no one will make an exception for me because I do not meet the qualifications. It’s simple math that the parent of this student even missed. When the reality of failing was not enough, the student complained about how she feels she wasted her time and her life by staying in school all these years and could not participate in the graduation ceremony, which is for students that passed all of their exams. I guess she did waste her time somewhere in the Paulding County school she attended.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I am familiar with the story. Additional the news reported, there are 100 students from this Pauling County High School, all were given 4 attempts to pass the State test to meet the requirements for graduation and they did not.
What ashamed the parents are missing the point also. There was the one parent who was on the news, stating how the school district should make an acceptation for her child. How can you be on the school honor roll and fail the state requirement for graduation?
Should the student who failed, be allowed to participate in the ceremony, along with the hundreds of others who passed the state requirement? Definitely NOT! What part of “Does Not Meet The Requirement” did the student and the parents not understand?
Why is it that students are held to a higher standard than teachers and/or adults. There are exceptions being made everyday. Students are required to pass test that more than likely the teachers cannot. Students are required to be qualified and although we would like to believe it is not happening; students are not taught by qualified teachers. I know of instances where kids are inducted into honor society but caught cheating in required classes; where trouble makers have been suspended numerous times and absences alone should have kept them from graduating but did not. Students should be allowed to march with their classmates;but not given a diploma. The academic requirements are completed; the exit exams were created to take failing pressure from some tenured teachers; the chance to march with fellow classmates and to be remembered in the class reunions cannot be replaced. Students are products of their teachers. Let them MARCH
@c mcgrew: It does seem that students are held at much higher standards than those who teach them and I would agree there are many students who can pass an exam while those giving the exam can not or will have much difficulty doing so. But, there is the role of the student and that of the teach and until our school system can hold our teachers accountable you will continue to have this disparity. Although students are products of their teachers, it is the responsibility of the parent or guardian to mold their student into being a prepared, responsible and therefore a better student.
What I can not agree on is a compromise or making exceptions when a student has failed to complete a state requirement (written on a 10th grade level) and allow them to participate in the celebrations of those who did meet the requirement. The who did meet the requirement, no doubt prepared for it and were good students through the year. I was particularly surprised at the honors student who was mentioned on the news, who failed and had 4 attempts at the test. She had little to say for herself except, I studied hard, but her hard study resulted in failing. Should we reward her for her potential when she did not live up to and deliver?
I often wonder what reason a teen has to fail test when I was able to return to school at the age of 44, a full time student, a full time parent and working a full time job and I managed to completed with a 3.78 GPA. Now that was hard work and I have the results to prove it, my MBA. The college would not allow someone to walk in the ceremony who did not meet the requirements, even if it was missing it by 3 points. Let them remember this as a life lesson, let them watch.
Thanks for your comments.