Grades for Competence, Congress, and Common Sense

Three teachers discussed the meaning of an F and its effect. One noted that students had been advanced to classes beyond their capabilities when they had already failed to comprehend materials in requisite classes. The effect of advancing those students was to set them up for failure—period. Another teacher asked if failure still meant failure. That question brought up the following instances of failure and its meaning:

A woman who already has six children and no means of support has eight embryos implanted and brings them to a viable delivery date. She suddenly becomes an expert on children and, in the opportunistic spirit of the times, she also combines her own exhibitionistic greed and the media’s concupiscent craving for something to print or portray on TV or movies. What grade should she be given? She has learned her lessons well. She knows what will sell.

HOW can one woman possibly have enough time in a day to love and speak with each of those fourteen children? Who will teach them to tie their shoes, wash their hands, play nice with the babies, and answer others with respect? Do these children have a chance of feeling cherished and protected?

Erin Staal, an 11-year-old boy, has written a book called Words Kids Need to Hear. If a child can express the basic idea that children need to hear—from their parents or someone—that they are loved, then how can the rest of us ignore that common sense that tells us that human needs must be met by the important humans in our lives? No amount of money or things can ever replace a cuddle or a quiet word from Mom or Dad.

Erin deserves an A. Any media connection that aggrandizes this so-called mother should get an immediate F and a trip to the cleaners.

Meanwhile let’s pass out grades for competence, income tax evasion, and Congressional conflicts of interest.