What Happened to Hard Work?

I have also been observing this decline for the last few years. About five years ago, I asked my daughter’s sixth-grade morah about the lower standard — easy work, no homework, simplified sheets, zero memorization, etc.… She told me that her principal wants her to simplify. Keep everyone happy. Reduce complaints from mothers. Reach the weak student.

While I don’t claim to really know where this new rationale comes from, for a long time I did have a niggling thought that one major reason for this new reality in some of our elementary schools is pressure from inexperienced parents, or parents of weak students. Because of the fear of “losing” these students, hanhalah members require their teachers to “go easy.” And that’s the new level for everyone.

a ASteacher for almost three decades, I’ve met quite a large number of parents whose value system does not include the painstaking, often difficult task of priming their children with the attitudes and beliefs that will make real learning possible. They have a different set of priorities, whatever they may be. (A while ago, I read a letter in a different publication from a mother, who was questioning the option of getting her tenth-grade daughter a job instead of finishing school. Yes, you heard me.)

Then there are other parents who have valiantly tried to help their children succeed in school, but they simply can’t keep up. Following the hanhalah’s directive, Morah then simplifies for everyone, and it seems like the issue is solved.