Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Highlands Today > News > Letters To The Editor

Brainless brainstorming

Hernando Today

Published: July 1, 2009

I've participated in and even lead a number of "brainstorming" sessions in my checkered career. Here's how it works: The group throws out as many ideas as possible without making any judgments or even doing any analysis until the idea well runs dry or the leader runs out of felt tip pens and newsprint on the easel.

Then the obviously wacky ideas get crossed off and the group focuses on the few that have some real merit.

In one such session, a Hernando County school board subcommittee came up with the idea of changing the grading scale so even if the student doesn't turn in his or her homework assignment they still get 40 percent for a grade.

This must be one of the wacky ideas that should have been crossed off the list before reporter Tony Holt got sight of it!

Does anyone really believe the student would "work harder" during the year if they got a break for not doing the work at the beginning of the school year? You've got to be kidding! Anyone who has been around kids, especially someone who deserves a spot on the school board, should know without a doubt that if the kid knows he or she is going to get at least a 40 even if they don't turn in the assignment the chances of them "working harder" are, well, slim to none.

What's next? Just show up at least half the time and get a passing grade? Graduate from high school without being able to write a complete sentence, add a column of numbers without a calculator and have no idea where Chicago is, let alone Afghanistan? Or that Neil, not Lance, Armstrong was the first to step on the moon?

American kids have a hard enough time competing in a world becoming increasingly dependent on highly skilled workers without making it so they don't even have to turn in homework assignments to get a passing grade.

Let me soften the criticism just a bit: Brainstorming is a great way to get people thinking outside the box and most of the time generates some really good ideas. Now let's hear about some of the things that survived - not just this cockamamie "change the grading scale" nonsense.

Gail B. Leatherwood

Spring Hill

Share this:

* To:
Your Name:
Your Email Address:
Personal Message [optional]: