Effort matters: Kids have to do the work

My sister got a "D" in English, her strongest subject, because she refused to write any more "3-3-3 paragraphs." She was sick of it. She went on to get an 800 on her verbal SAT and earn a degree in literature from the University of Michigan, ace the GRE and go to Stanford for graduate school.

I was appalled by her "D." I always did the work, on deadline, whether I felt like it or not. If I wanted an "A" -- which I did -- I put forth my best effort.

This has worked well for me in life.

Fordham's Michael Petrilli writes about his son's football coach, who demands extra exercise for missing a tackle, dropping an interception or, worst of all, slacking. The lesson is that "effort matters most," he writes. You've got to do the work.

Progressive educators want to make it easier for students to do less and still pass their classes, Petrilli writes. "Equitable" grading practices, such as giving 50 percent for missing work (the "gifty fifty"), unlimited retakes of tests and bans on basing grades on homework or class participation, are increasingly popular, he writes. Advocates say grades should reflect achievement, not effort.

Teachers say disregarding effort is harmful, according to "Equitable” Grading Through the Eyes of Teachers, based on a RAND survey, notes Petrilli. Students decide they don't need to do homework or study for a test or even come to class. They'll pass anyhow.

Eighty-one percent of teachers said "no zeros" under cut academic engagement; only 8 percent said it was helpful. In the comments section, teachers let loose on the "gifty fifty" for enabling laziness and "insulting the students who work," writes Petrilli.

“We have gone to the ‘Do nothing, get a 50’ grade policy. Students have figured out that, if they work hard for a quarter (usually the first) they can ‘coast’ the rest of the year and get a D.”

“Students are starting to feel entitled to points for nothing.”

Teachers don't like "handing out grades that students haven’t earned," writes Petrilli.

There are students like my sister, who don't do the work because it's so boring, but can ace all the tests. But not very many.

Jimmy Choi competes on American Ninja Warrior

Rick Hess loves watching American Ninja Warrior with his sons because it celebrates "perseverance and heart."

The show "features a field of competitors battling to complete a series of obstacles suspended over big tubs of water," he writes. "It’s two hours of carefully packaged pluck, grit, and community, dotted with the kind of soft-focus mini-features that the Olympics made famous back in the day."

Earlier this season, a 50-year-old man named Jimmy Choi, who’s had Parkinson’s since his 20s, tackled the course, writes Hess. He "made it past the first obstacle and found the strength to master the course’s 'Lunatic Ledges,' swinging his way across a distance of thirty feet or more. Then, despite his affliction from a disease that’s stolen his balance, he raced across five rolling logs." He failed on the fourth obstacle. "By then, my family was hoarse from cheering on a middle-aged man for getting partway through a televised obstacle course." Hess and his sons "talked about Jimmy’s discipline, the grace with which he discussed his disease, and why it’s the effort, not the result, that matters."