Grading on the Curve

My oldest daughter, Becca, is graduating from High School this year.  Besides all the normal fanfare that other high-school students (and parents) go through, our daughter has the added benefit of being home schooled.  This means Traci and I get to grade all her work and create her college transcripts.  I would love to tell you that I've been diligently grading all her work every week over the past four years, but that would be lying and this blog is about transparency.

Rather than do what "good teachers" would do, I've spot-checked her work throughout the past 4 years as she was doing the work.  When she had questions, I stopped to answer them to keep her on track.  Other than that, her teacher has really been her well-written text books, dvds with teachers, and computerized curriculum.  She really has had to learn how to be a self-starter, and it's payed off.  She's a responsible young lady with a good head on her shoulders...and she really wants to walk with God in every area of her life.  Yeah, I'm a little proud of her. :-)

College transcripts, however, are taking a bit of work...grading work.  I'm pounding through the piles of papers my daughter has produced over the past 4 years and filling in the "gaps" between my spot-checking.  Wow, I've asked her to do a lot!  As I grade these papers, though, I find myself becoming a bit philosophical about the whole thing.

I remember how much we used to worry about grades when I was in high school.  My parents (like most) used it as a barometer of "success" in school.  Colleges use these grades as a predictor of future potential in their schools.  We would work hard for them.  Some students would even cheat to get good grades.  (I tried once in grade school, got caught, and never tried again.  Man, this transparency thing is harder than I thought!)  Some teachers would even "grade on a curve" to allow a greater percentage of their class to pass their course.  Everything seemed to fall in line behind the all-important grade.

Here's the question that keeps rolling over in my mind:  What are we grading?  Battles over the public school system continue to take place across the nation as our test scores in comparison to other nations remain low.  Are we testing the right things, though?  At the heart of this question lies the question no one really wants to ask.  We are teaching our children to work hard and achieve - climb the ladder if you will.  But is the ladder leaning up against the right wall?


Proverbs 22:6  Says, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." (NIV)  The assumption here is that we know the way they should go.  Do the politicians?  Do the school boards?  Do the teachers?  Do we?

I resolved myself long ago to the fact that I fall short in life in so many ways.  The only hope I have for my children is to teach them how to listen to the only perfect Father they will ever have.  I even show them that I learn from Him as well...every day.

As Becca gets ready to go out into the world, I don't worry about whether she will succeed or not.  I know she will.  Perhaps she won't see things the way the world see's things.  She may not even "score high" on the world standardized tests.  That's fine with me.  She's gaining wisdom from the right place - from someone who knows "the way she should go": the one who made the world.