#807 Zany Education

More news from the zany world of education.
Yesterday I wrote about the Fairfax Virginia high school that had abolished Valedictorianism because ranking students made some of them feel bad.
Let’s not mention how bad the Valedictorian felt when after four years of hard work, diligence, and effort he was told his award was abolished. Must have had his self esteem crushed like the hopes of a guy dying of thirst in the desert when the lake he’s laboriously crawled to turns out to be a mirage.
Other high schools apparently have different approaches to achievement. One school in Chicago gave a brand new car to a 12-year-old girl who had perfect attendance.
Critics question whether this may send the wrong message to student—spoiling her.
The girl asked if she could have another color.
Seriously, the critics say learning should be a reward in itself. The Public Schools chief isn’t backing down, and sees the lavish prize as a vital weapon in the fight against truancy.
Obviously they don’t fund their schools with levies.
I was one of those rare kids who had perfect attendance. I probably infected half my class with all the colds and flu I brought to school when my parents refused to let me laze off at home with my supposedly imaginary aches and pains.
A car? I got a pseudo parchment certificate with my name spelled wrong. But here’s the troubling thing. This kid didn’t get a car for being a good student.
She got it just for showing up.
On the other end, a kid at Tesoro High School in Orange County, California is being rewarded with 69 criminal counts for allegedly hacking into the schools computer system, where he changed all his grades to A’s. He wanted to get into a good college. All those video game cheat codes must have skewed his moral sense.
It looks like he may get a free ride too. To the poky.
The criminal count for altering his grade in one class may be dropped. Apparently he already had one A—in Computer Science.
America, ya gotta love it.