Consequences

There appears to much in the newspapers of adolescents, young adults and older adults going off their nuts to kill, maim and otherwise display anti-social behaviour.

The public at large seem to be at a loss to explain heinous acts, but I think I have the answer. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's because they have no or a limited understanding of consequences. And that understanding should have been learnt at school.

If you are not forced to face failure, how can you accept the consequences? How can you do better? If, for example, you are told that spelling incorrectly is no big deal as long as you can express yourself, why wouldn't you be pissed off when you don't get that job? Why wouldn't you assume a more personal reason? After all, you passed everything at school, so it can't be that.

The recent stoush between the NSW Department of Education and Training and The NSW Teachers Federation is heating up as the Government tries to reign in delinquency and illiteracy in the young and the Teachers defend the poor sensitive petals who can't possible cope with rejection or failure because they're to young to understand and it might scar them for life.

Oh, yes. The touchy-feely revisionists are at it again. So far, they've managed to teach Aussie kids that Captain James Cook 'invaded' Australia and 'stole' the land from the indigenous population; that the father of the Australian wool industry, John MacArthur was a murderer and wife beater, that the discoverers of the inland, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth were also thieves, and other revisionist theories.

Now, though, they're rejecting the Governments proposal to return to the A-E grading system. Nope, they're perfectly happy with: Outstanding Achievement, High Achievement, Sound Achievement, Basic Achievement and Limited Achievement. Otherwise known as 'positive reinforcement'; that is, to promote the positves and not the negatives.

What a load of bullshit! First, kids are more resilient that these idiot teachers give them credit for. While they might be happy with a Basic Achievement and feel content to maintain that, you can bet your bottom dollar their attitude would be different if it was a 'D'. Parents, too, would have a better understanding of their child's failing and take remedial steps.

Second, it does the kids no favours once they leave primary or high school. It is a growing trend among university students who have yet to master basic English. More and more universities are introducing Remedial English classes to teach natural born speakers of the language how to write it. And these students are joing English as a Second Language students - way to embarrass a teenager!

Third, kids are going to come up against failures and rejections. It's a simple fact of life. If you teach them the consequences of failure, they will try harder not to and have a more satisfying life because they can cope with it. Failing isn't the end of the world, but if you don't understand the nature of failure, it becomes everybody elses responsibility and not the child's.

Kids are great at blaming everyone else, but they're expected to accept responsibility as adults. How are they going to do that if not confronted with the consequences of their own actions?

Instead of trying to make excuses for kids academic successes or failures, why not try looking at what the kid is good at and positively reinforce that talent? Look at what the kid is less capable at and find the reason why. Sometimes, it's simply that the kid has no aptitude for it. No shame there, and the apologists should just butt out and let them succeed or fail on their own merits.

...Achievements, indeed.