The graduation requirements set forth by the Everett School District seem to be causing quite a bit of anguish and frustration among the graduating seniors. What ever happened to just a final exam for a graduation requirement? Would that be too simple? Would it spoil the creative efforts of our so-called educators? Why must a senior construct a culminating exhibition, a biographical essay and a scholarly paper? These items are more suited for college, not high school. I don’t believe the school district should make it easy to graduate, but why should they make it so difficult? People wonder why there are so many dropouts from high school. Well, could this be one of the reasons?
Perhaps our educators do not remember how it was for them in high school; maybe our seniors should be cut a little slack. I would not want to be an educator who broke a student’s spirit by foisting these nutty requirements on our students. It is bad enough to be saddled with these requirements, but it is even worse when students have to constantly re-do these items because they do not measure up to “expectations.” Even worse, some of the teachers can look at the students’ papers and pass them, but other teachers can’t reach a consensus. It all seems somewhat confusing, mostly for the student, I’m afraid.
The Everett School District should simplify their graduation requirements without making it a cake walk. Either do this, or face more dropouts in the future.
Everett
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