Something From Paisano's E-mail File

Yesterday I received an e-mail from my buddy in New York. It was about a teacher who creatively involved his students in a real world experiment to test the long-term effects of the extremely liberal social agenda being championed by the current administration.

While I have no way of determining whether it’s an accurate account of an actual classroom occurrence, I’m recounting it here for two reasons. First of all, there are many great teachers out there that every day approach their craft with all the effectiveness and creativity shown by this e-mail educator. They, however, are routinely obscured by the bad press generated by those for whom education is a political football, and not a child-centered mission. So, hats off to good teachers! We need you now more than ever!

I also thought this e-mail points out an issue that many individuals in this nation have either forgotten, or chosen to personally overlook. Contrary to John F. Kennedy’s famous line about “not asking what your country can do for you,” too many have turned to Washington D.C. as the guarantor of their basic needs and overall stability in life. As such, they openly exhibit an aggressive attitude of entitlement which they consider is synonymous with being an American.

So I pass this e-mail on for your consideration. Whether it’s an account of superior teaching strategy in a real setting, or simply a creative political tract written to make some writer’s point about the dangers inherent in trying to engineer social equality, you be the judge. Either way, it’s excellent food for thought.

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To: Paisano
Subject: An Effective Lesson From The Classroom

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a student before, but had recently failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that President Obama’s social/political agenda would work, and that as a result no one would end up being poor, and no one would become excessively rich… a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we’ll have an class experiment to test the Obama plan. All grades will be averaged, and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail, and no one will receive an “A.”

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everybody got a “B.” The students who had studied hard were upset, and the students who had studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who had studied little, studied even less. And the ones who had studied hard decided they wanted a free ride, too, so they studied less. The second test average was a “D.” Of course, no one was happy.

When the third test rolled around, the class average was an “F.” And as the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame, and name-calling resulted in hard feelings. And nobody would study for the benefit of anyone else.

In the end, everyone failed!!! To their great surprise, the professor told them that like their testing, such social manipulation would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great. But when the government takes all the reward away, few will try or work hard to succeed.

Could any lesson be simpler than that?

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