Grading the graduate

1). That every choice they make in life will contribute either to their growth or destruction;

2). To know themselves better and to develop more self-confidence;

3). Self-respect and respect for others;

4). The importance of responsibly questioning and challenging the status quo on the way to developing their own values;

5). Appreciation of their own uniqueness and developing their individual talents and gifts;

6). Skills for immediate employment (or college entrance) and practical aspects of personal financial management;

7). The basics of good nutrition and personal health — including the importance of sexual responsibility and an appreciation for the miracle of life;

8). How to take charge of a task and see it through;

9). Appreciation of and practice in the importance of honesty, decency, responsibility and compassion;

10). The rewards of curiosity, creative thinking and knowledge;

11). Basic understanding of history, geography and various aspects of science and the arts;

12). That neither wealth nor material accumulation is the measure of success.

No matter how much formal education a person attains, if he doesn’t end up with a good grasp of the above, he is more likely to turn out like the narcissistic Goldman-Sachs executives — or maybe he will just drift along, unable to create a rewarding life, or in other ways (like not being able to keep a job), making life difficult for those around him.

A young person today, though operating in school under more pressure to achieve, is more likely to be unable to understand English, more likely to come from a broken home or never to have lived with two nurturing parents, more likely to have to deal with addicted parents or be a user himself, more anxious about the world and his personal safety, more likely to have spent his preschool years mostly in the care of someone besides his parents, more likely to come home to an empty house, quite likely to have to deal with stressed-out parents who are plagued by many pressures themselves, more likely to be homeless and/or hungry and much more likely to have been bombarded with gratuitous sex and violence, the consumer ethic and obsession with appearance from the media — all in all, less likely to be well-nourished physically, emotionally and spiritually than children of a few decades ago.

Skills in reading and math alone cannot develop the kind of citizen we need for a more productive and humane society. Parents and educators must work together to develop a program of education that helps a child become a well-functioning human being — not a human doing — and help develop a desire for justice, a desire for community and a love of humanity.

"Schools have taught and ‘graded’ a kaleidoscope of individual brains by a single program, a single set of criteria. They have rewarded and conditioned some skills to the exclusion of others, ‘failing’ those whose gifts are not on the culture’s most-wanted list, thus convincing them for life that they are unworthy.” — Marilyn Ferguson (Written in 1980 and, unfortunately, just as true today).

Since 1984, Dorothy Dimitre has written close to 500 columns for various local newspapers. Her e-mail address is gramsd@aceweb.com.