To Grade or Not to Grade is not the question as much as How To Grade..School's Back In Session

Here's a link to think about when it comes to grading practices in modern America...https://vimeo.com/287666801 Thanks to Mike Flint of CATV 6 (and Robinhood Radio in CT) Likely everyone has a story about a grade they either felt they earned or got unfairly. As Dr. Grusky explains, there are a few main grading programs dominating the American school culture and in general they combine 'apples and oranges'...'ability and effort' which really may not reflect a person's  knowledge or abilities accurately..

.He shares that in Canada, a few different metrics are used which more clearly reflect knowledge, amount of homework completed, effort in class participation and so on. The video is only up for a short time, so hope this is helpful. Region One in CT is comprised of six towns, Falls Village (aka Canaan), North Canaan and Cornwall, Salisbury, Sharon and Kent. All great towns, some smaller than others (such as Falls Village and Cornwall). Talk of combining some programs and more has been shared, but meanwhile it's every town for itself. Yet they all send their students to a regional high schoool, Housatonic Valley Regional HS in Falls Village CT.

Many students do go off to private high schools and some may homeschool or leave after some high school as is permitted by law. What's hard is there are only so many hours in the day. We don't have ongoing committees thinking through all of the options for learning, living and exploring options and having internships and opportunities. We don't face the reality of what climate chaneg may mean for everyone, including adults and youth and even children.

I felt it was very important to have a great deal of time to connect with our children when they were young and was not eager to send them away all day to school when they were small...My solution that seemed to work well for them was to send them to part-time kindergarten and one even to pre-kindergarten. Then they went to first grade if they wanted to at age 6 or 7. Otherwise one went to second grade at age 8. As many readers of this blog know, our one son Kaelan passed away when he was 16 on his last day of his freshman year of high school at HVRHS in Falls Village Ct. The Falls where he passed away is only a mile or so from the high school.

A group of youth went with parental permission (or in some cases, without it and against one's advice..yes that would be me having specifically asked that the right training and precautions be taken particularly with any whitewater boating but I hadn't spelled out the idea of not swimming in dangerous water since I thought that would be obvious. The extra tricky thing about that day's events is that some of the water looked almost reasonable to jump into in my son Kaelan's estimation and likely his friends followed his lead without checking with him. He likely was trying to tell them it was too strong of a current after a second jump, but more went in without checking with him or really for themselves in some sensible way or realizing there was no safe way to check such things.

Hidden currents can be part of a river or even a lake situation, so a checking with qualified adults and following community guidelines as well as Red Cross Water Safety and Rescue protocol should be a basic standard for anyone thinking of going in water in general. Those are the kinds of hard-won life lessons that parents, youth, teachers and others including rescue or recovery personnel who are often also put at risk with their efforts. These very challenging questions are the 'final exams' we are presented all the time as we 'craft clear safety plans' and build trust and clear communication among all 'team players' of youth, parents, school and work personnel.

Let's be ready to assess the reality of the bigger classroom and playing field of life we are all using whether indoors or out, on the road or in relationships. Everyone needs to know how to stay safe and get smart about life. It can take years but the investment is clearly worth it, even if as part of honoring the legacy of those who have journeyed on ahead of us and as a way to find ways to survive as climate and other challenges arise.