Social Promotion, or, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect Yer Sheepskin or Dollars

Jim Hall and Stephanie Richard disagree to a considerable extent on how to address "social promotion", i.e., the idea that a kid can fail to master the subject matter in grade school and still be promoted to the next higher grade. I have serious problems with "social promotion". Its a problem we have to solve. In a world where education and competence is the difference between a successful and failed economy, we can't afford to be second or third tier when it comes to the quality of our graduating classes.

Social promotion can eventually lead to failure. When failure eventually arrives, it is sometimes greeted by the student with astonishment and bitterness. Students who have automatically been promoted may expect that rewards and promotions are automatic rather than earned. Imagine the surprise when they finally are told they fail to measure up. Now, whose fault was that? Certainly not the failed and angry student, right? Shoot the messenger.

Social promotion was the policy in Hawaii's public schools. My wife saw 40% of the high school graduates arriving at her community college unable to test into Freshman English and over 60% fail to test into Freshman Math, in spite of having collected their high school diplomas. Needless to say, remedial studies were a growth industry, sucking money out of other, college level programs. By the time we left Honolulu, over 4,000 students were enrolled in her college's remedial programs, which she co-directed (the co-directors being professors of Math and Language Arts). Remediation, or as I like to call it, "damage control", was among the biggest programs on campus. Given the pressures to bring students up to speed after they had learned bad habits from K through 12, we teased her that it was the educational equivalent of the Russian Front.

We were not immune at the university center, Manoa. To avoid the political fallout of too many incoming Freshman being declared incompetent, my wife's college brought her over to teach  "English 22" to incoming frosh who were unable to master Freshman English, i.e., English 100. Likewise, we had trouble recruiting majors in Geosciences, since it was a B.S. program requiring things like Calculus. If you can't pass into Math 100, you ain't gonna pass Calc.

The bottom line with dodging the issues of failure is that the other shoe eventually drops, whether it be high school exit exams (that according to news stories, are sometimes faked by pressured school staff), college remediation, or being fired from a job because you can't make change, take down a menu order, or properly set a computer-aided machine's tolerances. For that matter, the next time you are getting a prescription filled, you might wonder if the clerk behind the counter really does have high school reading comprehension skills.

Wouldn't it be better if we set both standards and expectations (not to mention rewards) early, say, in 3rd Grade, and set them for students, teachers and most of all, parents? When I was a kid, it worried us more than a little to think we might flunk and be held back. Using both the carrot of coaching and remediation and the stick of the metaphorical (don't worry, not the literal) dunce cap in elementary school might not be a bad idea.

I hope one thing that Jim, Stephanie, and Gov. Martinez can agree on is that in order to stop the practice of social promotion, we need to work on the problems that beget the underlying failure. Those are not limited to the schools, either. When I was a kid, the expectations of high scholastic achievement started in the home and without that grounding, it was tough to make it stick in the classroom. We can't blame students, teachers or school administrators for the problems we adults all have a hand in creating.

Vote for Jim Hall

The Mutts rarely endorse candidates. Generally, they get a good laugh out of the insanity of politics, especially the more extreme excursions from rational debate. They concentrate on more important issues such as eating, sleeping, leaving their mark on the trail, barking at strangers, and running the trails at the back of the mesa.

But they do care about Los Alamos. They have all been pound rescues from elsewhere and know how lucky they are to live here and how important it is to manage our fate with intelligent choices and careful reflection. Therefore, they will tell you to vote for Jim Hall for the 43rd District.

Its rare to find a single human with the wealth of experience and talent that Jim brings to the Roundhouse. Its equally rare to find an elected representative who will come right out and tell constituents when the tempest du jure is actually in a teapot.

Keep Jim in the roundhouse. To add some kibble to the re-election dish, go here.

The Mutts Endorse Jim Hall

Rep. Jim Hall develops workable solutions that build on our region's assets, address our challenges, and benefit us all.

As your current state representative, long-time local resident, former councilor, school board member, state cabinet member, business owner, and civically involved family man, I have the experience and the heart to understand these myriad issues first-hand. I have the energy, expertise and relationships to develop workable solutions that build on our assets, address our challenges, and benefit us all.
As your current state representative, long-time local resident, former councilor, school board member, state cabinet member, business owner, and civically involved family man, I have the experience and the heart to understand these myriad issues first-hand. I have the energy, expertise and relationships to develop workable solutions that build on our assets, address our challenges, and benefit us all.

Experience

• Lived in Northern New Mexico for 40+ years
• Lived near Abiquiu and in Los Alamos
• Married to Janet, a teacher, and we have four children
• Jim knows NM institutions
• As a young man cut and sold firewood, worked constructionin Santa Fe and as a state firefighter outside of Tierra Amarilla
• LANL Staff Member, Group Leader, and Division Leader
• Consultant for diverse organizations, including DOE and the NM Supreme Court
• Member of NM Governor's Cabinet
• Worked in county government
• Owned a small business with Janet
• Jim's been active in our broader community
• Elected twice to the Los Alamos School Board
• Elected twice to the Los Alamos County Council
• Ghost Ranch Foundation and Governing Boards
• Los Alamos Medical Center Board
• Los Alamos Commerce and Development Board
• Sangre de Cristo Girl Scout Board
• Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, church, youth sports

Expertise

• Educational, healthcare and government policy
• Information technology planning and implementation
• Strategic planning
• Development of ordinances and laws
• Development of private and public sector budgets
• Management in the public and private sector

Legislative Results

• Since being appointed to complete Jeannette Wallace's term in 2011 Jim led successful efforts to:
• Keep Los Alamos whole in the redistricting process
• Preserve state funding for school reform, seniors, and law enforcement
• Fund acequia improvements in La Cienega and water improvements in La Bajada
• Pass a memorial recognizing Northern NM firefighters' effort during Las Conchas fire
• Pass a memorial asking Santa Fe local governments to ensure sufficient water for traditional agriculture

Earth to Rick Santorum: Don't forget where you live.

In a NY Times article: “The earth is not the objective,” Santorum said on “Face the Nation” on CBS News. “Man is the objective, and I think that a lot of radical environmentalists have it upside down.”

So where do we go if we screw up the Earth? I suppose one could vote for Newt Gingrich and hope for a trip to Moonbase Newt. Otherwise, I don't see the dichotomy between a worldview that realizes that our fate is intricately tied up with how we treat the environment on which our survival as a species ultimately depends.

Not to mention, past major climate changes have resulted in past major migrations. So much for "secure borders". Hah.

Will someone please put some adults in the room as far as controlling the quality of political rhetoric?

Don't shit where you eat.