CA schools evaluate grit, gratitude and zest on students' report cards
CALIFORNIA--In addition to traditional grades in subjects like reading, writing and arithmetic, students at several California elementary schools will now be evaluated for their social attributes.
The new report cards are intended to give deeper assessments of students' emotional and social learning.
They evaluate - on a scale of A for almost always, O for often, S for sometimes and R for rarely - students' optimism, zest, grit, curiosity, social intelligence and gratitude, plus self-control in school work and interpersonal relationships.
Emmett McGroarty and Nomiki Konst appeared on "Fox and Friends Weekend" to debate if this is a positive change.
McGroarty said this is a dangerous precedent because it reduces a parent's role to that of a "nanny" and promotes the role of government as the primary shepherd of a child's education.
Konst, on the other hand, pointed out that this evaluation system was actually designed by parents.
"Parents stepped up to their school boards and said, 'We need to teach our kids how to work hard, how to understand the text that they're reading, so that they're learning the stories rather than just memorizing the stories and the reading materials, so that they have the work ethic to compete with China, so that they can compete with India, because we're lagging right now.'"
McGroarty asserted this is a move towards creating an "educational portfolio" for a student - a collection of information, not just grades - that will stick with the child through their educational careers into their professional careers.
Konst acknowledged these social skills should be taught at home, but since children spend most of their waking hours at school, it's a carrying-over of the skills that parents are teaching at home into the classroom.