Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The Words Don’t Matter”.
Lldd colon, as a teacher, I am curious of what your thoughts on the removal of letter grades in public education. Any challenges you would be willing to talk about with your kids in school um. What is there in place? So right now it’s been the the traditional AB c d. F you whatever, whatever you know s for the top Triple S, yeah, exactly um has been replaced by um developing something proficient extending, and you know it’s one of those things where um.
You know the justification for it. I was reading this article about it a while back and they’re like oh well, you know this new system is designed to. You know keep the parents in tune with, what’s going on, to communicate, what’s going on with their kids and and it’s like to, and how well they’re doing it’s like right, yeah, that’s what letter grades did they communicated how well the kid was doing.
I even when I was a kid they didn’t have F, they just had ABC n and n was needs Improvement, and then you also got like um like an effort score almost. It was G for good s for satisfactory, and I for I for something else: um. Okay, well I didn’t I mean, maybe if you tried hard enough, maybe you didn’t just need Improvement. Maybe you actually failed, but like they weren’t holding any kids back in grades.
When I was in school did at my school, oh well, there you go um, so they’ve apparently me, but we’ve apparently been marching in this direction for quite some time. Um. The really silly thing about it to me is that a we already had a system for this. It was called ABC, D, Etc, and now we have a new system for this and it’s e p, something and guess what the report cards say.
They just have the letter on it, because that’s what the letters are for is is a quick way of communicating how the kid is doing in the class, so you’ve just replaced a with E and you’ve replaced B with p, and you replace C with whatever the Other one is like it’s just: why? Who cares? It’S not? It’S not like kids are going to feel any less bad for getting uh. You know I can’t can’t what even is the bad one. I can’t even remember what they are uh, so vague extending. I thought there was also a percentage like I specifically remember that an a was 83 % like that is 86 yeah that is burned into my brain, so they don’t have that they switch over to letter grades in high school still.
But I think they’re like extending this, so it’s um emerging, developing proficient and extending. So you can’t even just be like e. You have to write the whole word, so that’s what’s the bad one emerging emerging, why can’t we just have number? I I don’t know Dan. I thought it was both like you got an A but like how can I compete with my fellow classmates got the better, more gooder a but dude. This is like this is just it’s it’s it’s just the constant. It’S the constant evolution of language right like it’s.
It’S kind of like how we have a word. That means that you have a developmental difficulty. That word turns into an insult. It turns into a slur. It becomes a bad word, so we create a new term. That is, that is not a slur but means the same thing. Then people latch on to that. They start using it as a slur, and then you create a new one. It’S like okay, well, this is extending is the new. A and emerging is the new F and then when people don’t like being called emerging anymore because yeah, I don’t know I wouldn’t either, then you emerging like a turtle. Then we switch to numbers little baby turtle and then we switch again. It’S like so it’s Luke. Just creating new insults here, oh man, we’re going to have to change it again, do it. Why does this always happen? Like I called someone deficient a little while ago, that’s biting and I’m just like.
Well, because I was looking for. I was not to their FA. Not no not to to them oh you’re, insulting them behind their back. I was describing, I was describing uh someone, and I was looking for a word that I could use.
That meant what I mean and was I was allowed to use and I was like I was trying to think of something I’m like deficient, that’s so brutal. That is actually painful, I’m I’m stealing that one, but that word is not, but that word’s not canceled. So I can use it until someone clues in and then I’ll have to come up with a new word good day. Gentlemen. You are deficient. Oh, oh, it hurts that’s, actually painful yeah uh, let’s, let’s move on people are like that’s kind of insulting.
Of course it’s insulting insults are just insults are meant to be insulting. Oh man, I remember I remember someone telling me about a person. They knew who was um.
They characterized them as a particular type of person because they used a particular type of word to hurt a particular type of other person, I’m not going to get more specific than that and they were like they’re that type of person I’m like. No. What they are is a that’s what they are. What they did was use whatever the meanest word they possibly could was it had nothing to do with anything it wasn’t charged behind what that word means it had everything to do with how much it would hurt the other person and nothing to do with anything else, And I almost feel like, like binning these people into like oh you’re, a racist or oh, you are, you know, uh sexist or oh you’re, this or oh you’re, that it’s almost doing them a favor because it it lets them be like oh yeah, I’m a totally Normal perfectly cool person other than you know, I’m a little bit this. It’S like no you’re, a that’s what you are sorry, not sorry, I think that’s and there goes actually.
I don’t think that’s that much of our audience, I’m going to give you guys the benefit of the doubt here. The vast majority of people do use those words, not saying that that makes it okay. Oh there’s people who are racist. That too, there’s people who are ableists there’s people who are those who are sexist 100 % totally.
But in this particular case I knew the target. I knew the origin of the insult and I was like no that person’s just a jerk. They just wanted to hurt that Target as much as possible, and they knew that that was the worst word they could say. That was the only reason they would have said a completely different word. If that other word would have hurt more just like that. Yeah yeah, it’s a weird one, and I’m I’m finding that this is something that everyone talks about too you you like you.
You learn language faster when you’re a kid it’s like yeah, the inverse. Is you learn language slower when you’re not a kid yeah every day. I get slower Dumber weaker man, I hate it.
It sucks sucks yeah, but that means that you’re gon na eventually kind of slide behind the times, with what’s cool and what’s not cool to say and that’s funny when it’s cringe and that’s not funny when it’s like a word that is no longer cool, yeah man. I I was uh I I became I I had someone point out something to me the other day. I can’t remember what it was now, but I’d probably remember if I was going to say it um and they were like.
You know, yo. That has like a super negative connotation. I was like oh okay, well, all right I’ll file.
Remember that one file that a lot of them – I don’t even know what the unfortunately I’m just deficient. I can’t keep up with it. Lonus you’re losing your RZ and your eyebrows are no longer on fleek. Okay, the Fleek one is old yeah. I wanted to combine that.
Okay, cool cool cool, cool cool there is that better, yeah bushed them they look pretty you look absolutely poggles or whatever the the kids are saying these days, they’re they’re, my bush babies. Those are some skibidi skibidi SK. I don’t know those are some eyebrows man. I used to like that song uh skibby.
It’S little big, I think, is the original song. I don’t remember behind skibbidy yeah, it’s a real song that I mean it’s malformed, for. I think that I think that’s been moved on from that’s kind of old news. Now, anyway, all right! In summary, I think that the new grading system is emerging, see my issue with. That is that it implies trajectory upwards. Okay, what if there isn’t well what, if they’re getting worse? So what, if they’re, not improving what? If they’re, not learning fine fine, it’s deficient! Yes, it’s deficient, I’m sorry, it’s uh! It implies things that are not necessarily happening. We already had what it’s trying to achieve. The only difference is that now we have a confusing new way of doing it. Like I, you know what I think I’ve said this before. I should bring some of my old report cards from when I was a kid in.
You can tell 100 % what kind of kid I was because they filled out all my letter grades and all my different subjects and they wrote a blurb about me yeah. That’S what a report card is. We already had this. We just had to actually do the work all right. Let’S next, you think, like hypercritical parents aren’t going to see emerging and get really Agro on their kids like. If I had to guess I’d say I’d say, avoiding confrontations with parents would be a big part of any of this.
The confusion is a feature, not a bug that might be it. .