Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for February 12, 2012

The gold is about as real as Zipper’s grades.

Hasn’t Zipper seen enough of the “real world” hanging around with Jeff?

Sure, everyone always seems to underestimate good camping skills.

Does the real world demand results? It doesn’t look like it much anymore. I think what the real world demands is bluster, mostly.

Is it possible that the term “self-esteem” has been misunderstood or abused? Self-esteem in and of itself is not a bad thing. It simply means thinking enough of yourself to believe in yourself. In a culture where those of lower class are told, “Stay down there where you belong,” self-esteem is what gives them the belief that they can achieve whatever they set their minds to, if they work hard and smart enough. I believe when many say “self-esteem” what they mean is entitlement. As in, “I’m entitled to a good grade because Mommy and Daddy will throw a fit otherwise.” This is more commonly known amongst the higher classes (financially speaking), and it has actually served them quite well. They don’t have to achieve anything because others do it for them – and they make the money.

It is wishful thinking that adults with influence over children will ever make them work. Their poor little egos couldn’t take being given anything but an “A”. Their poor little fragile self esteems even require daily butt kissing (oops"validation" and “thank you for waking up today-good job”. " you pooped" good job. “you made it to work only 15 minutes late. Better than last month good job”. Your “Thank you” is your paycheck. Earn it. People under 30 are a bunch of whiny needy sissies. Self esteem should come from the self. Not from parents and teachers who are afraid of kids. When did kids become royalty. Parents these days are a bunch of wussy butt kissers raising spoiled brats with a sense of entitlement. "mommy call my teacher I didn’t get an “A” becomes “Mommy call my boss and get me a raise” . And keep those brats at home. You’re not entitled to eat out if you have kids. You ruin everyone else’s meal. You had em it was your choice now live with it and them. As an employer the new workforce stinks. I higher retirees. Even with the cost of health insurance- their work ethic makes them a joy to have around.

Problem is that Zip’s classmates thought they had made a superlative effort.

At least Zipper is listening. That’s the first step toward getting the message.

In the third panel, I do believe his next word was going to start with the grade he received.

It’s funny, liberals like GT created the self-esteem craze in the first place.

A child that never gets praise learns soon, that it doesn’t matter what they do, so why try? Toughlove parents end up with adult children bound for jail or the funny farm. anyone who works in one of those places has stories about a few misguided geniuses that were wasted because of what the parents did wrong.

Durn! Trudeau actually did one telling the truth! Shows he DOES know what’s real sometimes.

Self-esteem is judging your worth after you’ve been LIED to about your talents and abilities. Self IMAGE is judging your talents and abilities using the KNOWLEDGE of your own talents and abilities.

This is the sad truth. More teachers would give honest grades if there wasn’t pressure from administration to inflate them. I know, I’m a teacher.

Anyyone who’s ever taught knows how to give a B to both someone who “merits” a C but is trying very had, and to someone who “merits” an A but is coasting. In the real world, yeah, it’s the objective results that matter, but in a classroom environment “validation” and “encouragement” have a part to play.

(And SUSAN, I don’t recall EVER seeing Peppermint Patty answer ANY question correctly, so don’t be too hard on the teacher. Maybe PepPat “merits” an F.)

school?

Trudeau has LONG been critical of grade inflation, so this strip should hardly be surprising to regular readers (of whatever stripe). Students, parents, teachers, administrators, politicians, psychologists, he’s taken them all to task at one point or another.

The ONLY people who should be surprised by these grades are the students receiving them; If they’d known they would be expected to learn the material, they wouldn’t have enrolled at Walden.

What a geezer you must be!

I may seem like a hard-* to some with this opinion, but I have to concur with this evaluation. I work very hard to do well in school. I don’t need any stooges, twits, clods, dolts, wags, or merry-andrews dumbing-down the grade curve.

I can’t remember any teacher I had ever handing me a better grade than I deserved for any reason what so ever.

For true happiness and inflated self-esteem, do “on-line public school.” There is an ad for that at the bottom of this page, lower left, on my website. Private business has created another avenue of income to suck federal and state education funds without accountability. And I’ve got some nice bottom land for sale. LOL

you nailed it again gary. self esteem is gained by successfully gaining knowledge and skills….all the rest is BS

Thanks. Public school teachers have become the scapegoats for societies problems.

I heard about the current grading system a few years back and it seems to have been accurate. C if you show up for class, B if you participate any in class, A if you do half way decent on the exam. When I was in college, small lib arts, there were two students with 4.0s. Now there are more than two dozen. Have students really gotten that much smarter – I don’t think so. And most of the professors know this and have to just go along with the whiners who need that A or B to get into profess school-who has now raised their consideration GPA to 4.0 + extra bonus credit.I like this strip today. REALITY

WHAT? The Fairness Doctrine was supposed to make grades F air. How revealing!

You’re not serious, are you? Because if you are, I’m a lot more worried about this country than I was before. “Each child is entitled to feel good about themselves even if they put in no effort; even if they are disruptive and prevent others from learning.”You have got to be kidding me. THIS is wrong on sooooooo many levels!

Most improved is not necessarily good yet!