The Bridget Green story hasn't really stayed in the news like I thought it would. A valedictorian who flunks an exit exam should be a big wake-up call, and one that gets a lot of press nationwide. Instead, no newspapers other than Louisiana's Times-Picayune has covered it - although a lot of bloggers got into the act, including Joanne Jacobs, Bowl of Gumbo, and An Age Like This (who gets bonus points for doing some extra research on Louisiana's schools.)
I was hoping we'd see some more serious op-eds and calls for actions based on this. Instead, far as I can tell, all that appears to have happened is that my comments section on the original post was infested by trolls, and a bizarre letter to the editor was published on NOLA:
This young woman has suffered enough pain and humiliation from the system. Return to your year book! Not all who were voted most likely to succeed, succeeded. It is usually the B and C students who try the hardest and they're the ones who often make it big. Watch it! You may be looking at your future mayor.
To Bridget Green, keep trying. Someone once told me, persistence beats resistance anytime.
Joyce M.Y. Armstead
New Orleans
Whaaa?? Since when does the possible future success of B and C students justify the miserable current failure of the valedictorian? If the valedictorian did this poorly, what makes us think the B and C students can do anything at all? What's with the "future mayor" comment?
And why is Ms. Green supposed to just "keep trying" in a system that gave her an A for not learning Algebra II? She should persist in her education, I agree, but the real "resistance" here is obviously Fortier High. And if she attends college, she's going to have to overcome the "resistance" of having attended a high school that didn't manage to teach her two year's worth of material in the four years she was there.
Obviously, both this letter writer and Fortier High are much more concerned with Ms. Green's self-esteem than with her academic achievement, and believe that enthusiastic cliches and meaningless "A"s are the way to produce that.
(And speaking of self-esteem...)
Posted by kswygert at August 21, 2003 01:47 PM