(Click on pic for a better view.)

If you have not read my previous post, you should probably go there first. My last post was (gasp!) a bit of a rant, but I want to return to one small snippet of my venting. In my picture above, the second green card down has only three stars. Three-star student stands alone at the bottom of the class.

Please, readers take a moment to put yourself in that student’s shoes. How does it feel to be three-star student? No matter how much we work on three-star students “mindset” — to use one of the latest buzz words — can we honestly protect three-star student from feeling dumb? Humiliated? Embarrassed whenever he looks at that board?

Imagine a classroom. Do we really believe that no other students have remarked on those stars? “Wow, you only got three! Can’t you read or something?” I don’t know what the kids said, but I am sure they have not been mute. When the teacher hears those remarks, I am sure he leaps in to do damage control. But teachers miss chunks of conversation all day. Kids also become adept at knowing when they can work in digs. That’s part of why bullying remains such an incalcitrant problem.

We have set this kid up to be bullied. With luck, he has superior social skills. Some kids can manage a set-up like this, turning the stars into one big joke to make fellow students laugh. Some kids are so much fun that popularity creates a shield around them, preventing stars on green cards from affecting their social status. But the wrong kid with these three stars has entered a world of hurt.

Readers, please be eight- or nine-years-old for a moment. Look up that chart. You get to look at it every day all year. How does that chart make you feel?