To the Editor:

When I was a teacher at PHS, I offered students the opportunity to earn a higher grade, greater than what they perhaps merited. I composed a list of items which I gave them and also attached to the bulletin board. The list of items varied along with the point value assigned to each. So even if the student failed, he or she could still get a passing grade by selecting an item worth a letter grade higher and successfully performing the requirements outlined in the completion of that task or a combination of tasks.

So, it never bothered me that a star athlete might be ineligible as a result of failing my class or if an otherwise straight A student came up 1 point away from that A and thus denying the student a 4.0 GPA. In my heart and mind, I offered not only fairness and equality of opportunity but also equity in not knowing what issues the students were being forced to deal with that could impact the grade they would receive.

There are some adults in leadership positions within our community who think they are making the grade based upon a standard of comparison adequate for a different day and time. But the present perils we are faced with and the potential threat to our democratic society requires a higher standard for evaluation than what this leadership is willing to exert. A status quo mindset to me is failing to make the grade!

A greater spiritual or moral standard is now being required in order to avoid failing or obtaining the grade you think you deserve. The front page of the Miami Valley Today (7/29) saw the alignment of two articles: “Piqua woman, man charged by FBI” next to one entitled “Summer day camp celebrated cultural diversity.” You may think you are demonstrating an awareness that a certain level of commitment brings to cultural diversity but ignoring the political threat posed by a more uniformly indoctrinated citizenry will not earn high marks of accountability and responsibility for a future safe and secure from the evil posed by an authoritarian coup.

Different doesn’t necessarily mean better but a more creative, outside the box, solution to problem solving than those currently offering a failing model of leadership needs to be considered in order to garner the extra points for higher grades.

— Larry Hamilton

Piqua