“You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”  ~ Ayn Rand

I can say that it isn’t a cliff drop-off on the path ahead of me, but I will still fall and die when I walk over the cliff. This is an example of what Ayn Rand meant. Today’s Woke brain washers claim the right to remake reality by relabeling any reality they choose. But the consequences will always catch up to them and the rest of us. Drag queens can dress up as women, but they will still get prostate issues (along with the rest of us born male) as they grow older (reality).

The latest Woke denial of reality is the so-called “Equity Grading” in public schools. In a May 4 letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, a former Baltimore County Public School teacher explains the consequences of denying the reality of grades and denying the benefits of homework.

These consequences include:

> Policy: The lowest grade for any assignment or test is 50%, so you still pass even if you do not work.

Consequence: Students who lack proficiency are promoted, thereby encouraging students to skip assignments altogether.

> Policy: Teachers are told not to grade homework.

Consequence: 70% of this teacher’s students stopped doing homework. Hint: homework is further learning practice. No practice = less learning.

> Policy: Attendance doesn’t count much toward a grade.

Consequence: Even honor students skip classes. “Samuel Hwang, a senior at Ed W. Clark High School in Las Vegas,… said, ‘Even classmates in honors and Advanced Placement classes are prone to skip class now unless there is an exam.”

So What?

So what, you may say. Here’s what. Examples of the consequences of avoiding real-world reality in the classroom:

> When students who don’t have proficiency in math, for example, are given diplomas and get jobs in the industry, they won’t be able to do the job to reality standards. Machinists, for example, must calibrate their machine tools to precise mathematical dimensions to create the airfoils in jet engines. If the dimensions are off, the airfoils won’t create enough thrust to keep the airplane in the air.

Consequence: aircraft stalls and crashes, killing passengers and crew.

> Students stop doing homework. Homework is equivalent to batting practice for a major league baseball player. Drill (repetition) builds skill.

Consequence: students don’t acquire skills in the subject, be it math, reading, or writing. Low skill = low job performance. We have all encountered the cashier who can’t make a change without the register to tell him how much change to give the customer. Why? They have low math skills.

> Students stop attending class. It’s no longer required in ‘Equity Education,’ and it won’t lower their grades. In real-world jobs, you have to show up.

Consequence: you are fired for non-attendance.

Why Repetition is Key to Learning

Educators who have been taught Learning Theory (instead of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) know about the research on spaced repetition vs. massed practice (aka ‘cramming’ for the test).

For any subject matter to be burned into long-term memory, spaced repetition of practicing the material is superior. Massed practice (cram study of the subject for one or two days just before the test) may enable the student to pass the test, but she will have forgotten most of the material within one week.

In our schools, spaced repetition means daily attendance at class, where you practice the subject material. Spaced repetition also means doing nightly homework that gives you additional repetition with the subject matter. This spaced repetition burns the subject into long-term memory.

How to gain Fluency in a Subject or Skill? Speed drills.

A method called Direct Instruction shows that practicing for speed helps “burn in” the subject into long-term memory. “As they keep on practicing, students reach the “automatic” stage where they are successful and rapid, and no longer have to “think through” each step.”  Automatic means fluent. ‘Keep on practicing’ means attending class and doing your homework until you know it ‘by heart.’

For commercial airline pilot training, what if the FAA said, “You don’t need 250 hours of flight time; just do 3 hours on a flight simulator before your first flight with passengers.” Would you want to fly on that pilot’s aircraft? Airlines actually may require 1,000 or 2,000 hours or more. Thank God for the airlines that do. Spaced repetition of flight skills yields fluent pilots who don’t have to stop and think about how to land the aircraft. They do it “automatically.”

Equity Education? Or Fluency Education?

Who do you want to be your airline pilot?

The ‘Equity’ learner who didn’t attend flight class or practice much?

Or the ‘Fluent’ pilot who practiced so many hours he could practically fly with his eyes closed?