I believe it was in my 8th grade civics class that I learned the state’s official motto was: “Wisdom, Justice, Moderation.”
There are some elected officials in Georgia who, by their actions, may make it necessary to change the official motto to the more accurate: “We worship mediocrity.”
Just consider the events at a meeting on Thursday of a legislative study committee that is looking at a proposed bill from Rep. Steve Davis (R-McDonough), HB 215, that would abolish the current “unified diploma” given to students who graduate from our public high schools.
HB 215 instead would create three kinds of diplomas: a career/vocational/technical diploma, a college preparation diploma, or a “general diploma” that would require students to pass fewer courses and attend high school for only three years instead of four.
It’s not that he’s trying to “dumb down diplomas,” Davis insisted. He’s just trying to help out all those students who don’t feel like attending college.
“You cannot have an army with nothing but generals,” Davis said. “You have to have cooks, drivers, infantrymen, people like that.”
“I see no reason why a ninth grader who’s having trouble with math can’t move to a technical school right away,” said Rep. Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth).
It’s certainly hard to argue with those statements. After all, when you get right down to it, aren’t all these high-falutin’ concepts like “books” and “knowledge” and “passing grades” just a little bit elitist? It’s much better to crank out a bunch of high school graduates who are only capable of driving trucks or working at Waffle House. That way, you won’t be wasting taxpayers’ money on a bunch of kids who are only going to do something foolish like go to college.
Davis said his bill would have a positive impact in a couple of areas. For one thing, it would improve the state’s graduation rate – obviously, if you allow someone to get a diploma by taking fewer courses over three years instead of making them go to high school for four years, you will probably have more students who end up getting diplomas.
It also would mean that only the high school students who have chosen the college preparatory track to a diploma would take the SAT entrance exam, which in turn would improve our average SAT scores (where Georgia consistently ranks in the bottom 10 percent of states).
“I felt we could really enhance those (SAT) scores,” Davis said.
Why stop there? Legislators should go ahead and pass a bill that would confer a high school diploma on everyone who finishes the 7th grade. That would give Georgia a graduation rate close to 100 percent, and make us the envy of every other state in the nation.
