An "A" should be an "A", kids should be kids, and schools need to stay schools.

So is that like an A?
New York Times
2/20/08

In the Hartford, CT school district, there is a new type of report card. This new type of report card is more like a periodic psycological evaluation report than a report card with simple grades. The report card the school district has adopted gives parents of children as early as pre-kindergarten a evaluation on 58 academic, social, and behavior sills that can end up being seven pages in legnth. To me, this is more like a teachers opinion judging the quality of the child, not his class or learning performance on the material presented. As far as anyone can remember, and based on my own experience, children attend school to learn, not to be raised. Whatever happened to parents spending time and talking with their kids to determine their progress of maturing into intelligent, moral, and social adults? It's rediculous that schools have any support for this new report card. I would feel as if the school thought they could do a better job at parenting than me. Why would any parents let an over-rated second grade school teacher evaluate their children in these kinds of aspects? If the child, acting like the CHILD he/she is, gets under a particular teachers skin by cutting up a little bit in class, the teacher might conclude and report that the child isn't progressing "normally", because she doesn't have the patience required for the job she signed up for. This is an extremely inaccurate way to grade children, and could have unforseen effects on his real progression into an adult. I think this will cause alot more children to get in trouble at home with their parents for just being a kid and acting and doing things kids normally do, because they don't know any better. this is an extremely biased system of grading, as opposed to everyone elses unbiased grading system of letter grades. This is set up for doing our children more harm than good. Who do teachers think they are, now thinking they can grade children on aspects of their character and personality. If parents feel the need for this kind of report, take your child, on your own money and time, and see a psycologist for a real evaluation. If teachers can report on all this stuff and write this all-encompassing evaluation and report card, what next? Will teachers beable to start writing presciptions for the ADD kids? Are they all going to get a Dr. title slapped to the front of their name? This author was great and i'm glad i found this article. i completely agree with this author and recommed reading it (it's short) if feel like it. Lastly, Schools are for teaching, and parents are for raising their own children. lets try to keep it that way.