I think balancing always. No social good is entirely good. People have been decrying the decline of public education for as long as I can remember. You may be too young to remember "Why Johnny Can't Read."
But if you make public education mandatory, then you've got the problem of people who can't meet the standards because they just don't have what it takes, whether the lack is intellectual, social, emotional, moral, whatever, some just are not going to make the grade. Has the bar been lowered? Sure. Social passing is a fact of life. It doesn't fool anyone, and it gives a motivated kid a leg up on the next step up the ladder.
Where are these guys going to wind up? At Jiffy-Lube, and driving trucks, and such.
Is anyone sitting on the admission committee at say, Stanford, going to admit a D-average graduate whose academic career consists of non-college prep courses? Don't think so.
If you insist that only people who can pass a mandatory exam can have high school diplomas, all you'll get will be more people without high school diplomas, IMHO. |
