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Cash 1 Harry Cash Mr. Aaron Harms English 1000 30 October, 2006 High School Grades: A Generational Understanding Drama, sports, cheerleading, student council, academic clubs, friends, band, jobs—high school students today are bombarded with involvement opportunities and extracurricular activities. With so many challenging and often rewarding ways to spend their time, how do students choose what to focus their time and energy on? High school is arguably one of the most shaping experiences in the lives of young adults, as it opens them up to all sorts of new experiences and opportunities, eventually leading to getting a job and making their own livelihood. The way a person approaches high school reflects not only their values but also the direction they want to head in life. My father, Todd Cash, values top grades as the priority focus for high school because of the unstable state of politics and education he was immersed in during the 1970s and the social norms which stemmed from that period. Born in 1962, Todd Cash entered high school in the middle of the seventies, a time of great social and political unrest in the United States. In that decade, Americans were faced with the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the controversial Vietnam War, serious inflation, and double-digit unemployment, among other things. As he was growing up and learning to form his own opinions on the ever-changing world around him, Todd was entering a society that had many disillusioned hopes for the future. During this time period, many Americans turned their view inward, trying to control what they could of their own life—some seeking constancy in religion, drugs, or involvement in political protests (Tompkins). Cash 2 It is possible that others, like Todd, sought to do the best with what they had control of—their grades. Not only would good grades be satisfying, but they also provided an outlet for the frustration many students felt about the national and global circumstances that were out of their hands. The educational scene in the 1970s was also tumultuous. Efforts to desegregate schools turned into full-scale riots. Even in the midwestern states Todd grew up in, where human rights were not as grossly violated, elementary and high schools were often segregated because of the school-district lines (Tompkins). Another disputed issue when Todd was a student was over traditional versus progressive education (Musick and Turner, 149). While traditionalists called for a return to a highly-structured and performance-based education, progressives declared that students learned better when given freedom to pursue subjects that interested them. Eventually schools picked up on the latter idea, and as the decade marched on more schools, including Todd’s, used nongraded curriculums. At first, public approval was high, and even colleges began to adopt the new way of thinking. But by the end of the decade, standardized tests revealed a noticeable decline in performance, so schools began to swing conservatively again (Tompkins). These drastic changes in curriculum gave Todd and his peers a sense of instability. Amid all of the other movements and controversies happening around him, the only consistent goal Todd could pursue was high academic achievement, regardless of the curriculum or setting. The ever-varying focus of schools stretched on to affect Todd’s higher education as well. While many colleges and universities in the 1970s had begun to use an open-admissions policy, allowing all applicants to enroll, grade inflation, laziness, and lack of motivation to perform well in high school made institutions question the policy, and eventually they returned to tougher admissions requirements (Tompkins). Graduating high-school seniors, like Todd, were faced Cash 3 with a dilemma—their high school grades were not accurate indicators of their achievement, and often their “explorative” high school curriculums were not good preparation for the rigors of college academics. This led Todd to believe that a student had to work as hard as they possibly could in order to ensure acceptance to and success in college, regardless of the changing curriculums. In fact, even the parents of those graduating seniors agreed on the importance of grades in determining college admission. In 1980, the year Todd graduated from high school, 69% of parents of graduating seniors agreed that college admissions should depend more on high school grades and recommendations than on standardized test scores, according to opinion polls (Yankelovich, Skelly, and White). As shifting as they were at the time, good grades were still highly valued and sought after. Another value of Americans in Todd’s age bracket was hard work, a view that most Baby Boomers of his generation carried into their adult lives. Out of the men between 35 and 44 years of age polled in 1998, 67% said that they would choose to continue to work, even if they had enough money to live as comfortably as they would like for the rest of their lives (Russell, iii: 21). Similarly, when asked about their work ethic, 37% of people in that age group said they worked hard without letting it interfere with the rest of their life, while a whopping 54% said they worked to the best of their ability, even if it did interfere with the rest of their life (iii: 22). This illustrates the belief that work brings a sense of purpose, and achievement brings personal satisfaction, regardless of whether or not more money is earned. When asked about his own high school and early college experience, Todd often says that he wasted his time in goofing off—while his grades were tolerable, he is now dissatisfied with the lack of hard work he could have chosen to put toward earning better grades. Cash 4 Todd’s work ethic was also influenced by his religious beliefs, which he gained half-way through college when he chose to become a Christian. Above his desk hangs a plaque which reads, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”—a verse from the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15). While some interpret this only in a spiritual sense, Todd believes it also indicates a responsibility to pursue excellence in every aspect of life, a responsibility to develop and use the gifts he believes God has given him. Good grades are a measurable way of assessing excellence in school, so he believes they should be the responsibility and focus of students. Not all students have the opportunity to move on to higher education after high school, so Todd also recognizes the privilege that education is, expecting that people make the most of the privilege they have. 8.8% of the men aged 35 to 44 in 1998 did not finish high school with a degree, and another 4.1% did not even begin high school. And while 34% of men’s highest education was a high school graduation with a GED, only another 32% of men went on to receive a bachelor’s degree or more (Russel, ii:146). Knowing these statistics must have made Todd well aware of his better-than-average opportunities, giving him further drive to make the most of it by striving for high grades, and encouraging his children to do the same. Todd Cash’s emphasis on good high school grades is understandable and logical, considering education statistics, his religious beliefs, and the political and educational turmoil he was surrounded by. Certainly, different circumstances—whether political, educational, religious, or other—could lead another person to different values. Perhaps this is the reason there is such a gap between the generations today, and why there was a gap between my father’s generation and the generation before him. These differences of opinion can lead to disputes and quarrels, but if we instead seek to understand the background that shaped the views of the older generations, Cash 5 maybe then we will also have a better understanding of who those people are as individuals, gradually closing the gap between the generations. Cash 6 Works Cited Musick, David, and Jonathan Turner. American Dilemmas: A Sociological Interpretation of Enduring Social Issues. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. Russel, Cheryl. “Earnings Distribution of Men by Education, 1997: Aged 35 to 44.” Table. The Baby Boom: Americans Ages 35 to 54. 2nd ed. New York: New Strategists Publications, Inc., 1999. ---. “Work to Live or Live to Work? 1998.” Table. The Baby Boom: Americans Ages 35 to 54. 3rd ed. New York: New Strategists Publications, Inc., 2001. ---. “Would You Work if You Were Rich? 1998.” Table. The Baby Boom: Americans Ages 35 to 54. 3rd ed. New York: New Strategists Publications, Inc., 2001. Tompkins, Vincent, ed. American Decades. Vol. 8:1970-1979. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library. 2005. MOREnet U of Missouri-Columbia. 11 Oct. 2006 <http://find.galegroup.com/gvrl/infomark.do?&contentSet=EBKS&type=retrieve&tabID =T001&prodId=GVRL&docId=CX3468302624&eisbn=1-4144-1116- 2&source=gale&userGroupName=morenetuomcolum&version=1.0>. Yankelovich, Skelly, and White. Survey by Educational Testing Sevice, January 28-February 29, 1980. Retrieved October 11, 2006 from the iPOLL Databank, The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut. <http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/ipoll.html>.