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 For the Week of November 16, 2009by Rubel Shelly Since the time of Moses and Plato, great thinkers have asked adults to think about what they teach children. They have stated the obvious. The examples, stories, and songs we offer our children shape their attitudes and influence their behaviors. What they will become as adults is rooted in those childhood impressions. At least, most of us would think this is “obvious.” A middle school teacher in North Carolina either disagrees with those thinkers of the past or wasn’t doing some of her best thinking recently. Susie Shepherd came up with a different way for girls and boys in her school to get extra points toward grades. For a cash donation of $20, they could purchase 10 extra points on two tests of their choice. No, she wasn’t pocketing the money. It was her idea of a creative fund-raising project for her tight-budget, cash-strapped school. I presume the money would have been used wisely for educational materials, musical instruments, and the like. But the idea seems not to have originated with her. It was her response to a money-for-grades proposal from some parents at the school. Rosewell Middle School in North Carolina has annual fund-raisers of the sort all of us remember from our own experience of selling magazine subscriptions, candy, or other items to get off-budget money to supplement funding for schools. But selling grades? No matter the source of the idea, it is an incredibly bad one! Do we want our children to grow up thinking grades, justice, political office, and the like are things to be purchased? Oh, forgive me. What was I thinking? There are lots of people who clearly believe already that “everything is for sale” – and marketable. We’ve had stories of governors taking bids for senate seats, judges taking bribes for verdicts, investment companies running Ponzi schemes, and companies giving kickbacks for contracts. But we claim to be horrified by those reports. We scream for arrest and prosecution – with hefty fines and jail terms for those found guilty. Where is the consistency in all this? State education officials got wind of the cash-for-grades plan in North Carolina and put a stop to it. So do we need more laws, monitors, and ethics seminars? We probably just need more adults who think. They don’t even have to think the great thoughts of Plato or Moses. We just need to think the simple, common-sense thoughts about teaching our children not to cheat or look for shortcuts. Teach them to study for good grades and work for their money. More important still, teach them to respect people and to be offended by injustice. Parents and school officials, Scout Masters and coaches, entertainment and workplace – one consistent message needs to come from our culture. It is more important to be honorable than to get an honor. It is more important to maintain personal integrity than to get straight-As, money, or office. Another great thinker put it this way: “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it” (Proverbs 22:6 NLT).   |
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