Week 42 times sure have changed

A little while back we got a letter from my daughters school informing us that they were changing the way the kids were being graded. They were switching from a grade system to a new system that confused the heck out of me. Basically the teachers are trying to engage the students thought processes more and determine if they are understanding and thinking about the information presented to them. For example they may read a news headline or watch a short newsclip on something like women trying to attain the right to vote in Saudi Arabia. Then they discuss various themes and ideas that were presented to them. The kids are then assessed on whether they understood the material and how it got them thinking. They write down in there own words answers to various questions that gauge how much the student understood the material and can give examples and conparisons to say, how different it is between life for women in Canada as opposed to Saudi Arabia. There are no perfectly right or wrong answers. It is more a question of how it got the student thinking and how they relate it to what they already know.
  
I like that they are getting the students thinking more. Not just doing the straight memorization of facts and figures or places on a map. There is so much information out there that kids can so easily access. They need to be able to look at this information critically and not just accept things at face value. Alot of so called factual information is presented from the angle that the writer wants the reader to reach. Kids today have to be able to be much more discerning of what is screaming loudly at them for their attention nowadays.

I am still old fashioned in that I can understand what 90% means as opposed to "meets the standard". But the information age is upon us and technology and the world wide web have shrunk the world to the point where everything is so close to home now. I just hope I can keep up with the changes and contribute in a positive way to my kids growth, both mentally and spiritually. By trying to be a positive role model and someone they can talk to about anything, I think I'm doing ok. The world is a much more complicated place then when I was a kid. I can't even imagine what the future holds for my childrens children and their children after that.