Lowered Expectations.. Our New Motto for Success

As a former counselor I'm well aware of the necessity for "lowered Expectations. Some clinicians euphemistically refer to this technique as "Baby steps". What they're really saying though is, If you set your benchmarks for progress low enough, you'll never be disappointed. Even the laziest and most unmotivated person can enjoy a modicum of success with a only a minimal effort on their part.

I typically used this approach when dealing with resistant clients that were unable to meet what would be considered the normal criteria for progress. Their comprehension levels were typically low, their attention spans were extremely short, and their motivation levels were practically nonexistent. The only reason they came to see me was because they were forced to do so by some agency or other. Life had been way to easy for them, and they had no desire to change.

I now see that this technique has crossed over from the world of counseling into Mainstream America. Today we must set the bar for success at a much lower level to be more inclusive of the underachievers in our society. Rather than demand that they do more for themselves, we simply lower the standards. We see the results of this practice everyday in our schools systems (kids that can't read), our workplaces (poor service and low quality work), and in our housing (built by nonprofessionals using second rate materials).

We must no longer expect well-trained, knowledgeable, and experienced people to work on our cars, design and construct our roads and bridges, or build our homes. We must allow the unskilled and the untrained members of our society to do these things for us.

Why should we care that it might compromise our safety, or costs us more in the long run? We must lower the standards to be more inclusive of those who are statically less fortunate. Surely you wouldn't object to having your home wired up by a person who had never received any formal training in the field or participated in an apprenticeship? These things are trivialities in comparison to society as a whole. We must all make sacrifices and lower our expectations to ensure we never feel the pangs of disappointment in our lives ever again..

[edit on 23-1-2009 by LLoyd45]

I have to bump this thread up.

The OP relates this problem eloquently, although it is a much deeper rooted phenomenon than just lowering the bar.

The schooling system has degraded over the generations, and yes... we have a lot more information out there now being taught in the schools, but it's all being taught ineffectually and without a focus on relevance.

People do have it too easy, but that's about to turn around with the way the economy is going. The spoiled Generation Y are about to learn that when push comes to shove, you either contribute something worthwhile or you starve.

The gravy train is over. Equality is Carpe Diem.

Lowered expectations

That was hilarious, and it definitely puts the phrase "Lowered Expectations" into perspective. LOL Thanks.



[edit on 23-1-2009 by LLoyd45]

I have to agree with the OP on this, I see it all the time. I work for a large Engineering, Design and Construction firm. I can honestly say that in the short 10 years I have been in the business I have seen the bar lowered significantly. It cheeses me off because I take great pride in going beyond what is excepted of me and making an effort to learn how to use software that I'm not familiar with if it's being used on a project I'm involved in. Just to see others (who usually make more than me) skate by on minimal effort (and brain power).

I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, that's just the way I am, I wouldn't feel comfortable slacking off like a lot of others do. The firm I'm at now acquired the firm I did work for. The current firm has different standards and uses different software than the other firm did. Now a number of the people who were long time firm1 employees refuse to learn the new standards or use the new software (which depending on the project may just be a newer version of what they are use to). To me, in this economic environment, they should just suck it up and deal with it, a small group were laid off in mechanical and rumor is a big number of structural is on their way out too.

But I'm in the gub'mint group, working on a huge job that is defiantly financed through the end of the year, so I'm good, for a while at least.

I have to agree with the OP as well. Lowering the bar is NOT helping us do anything but spit out dummer students and professionals who are half-*ssing the job and creating more problems then solutions.

I use to work in the New Brunswick School District as a IT teacher and it was just ridiculous the kind of policies they had for so called "under-Achieving" children.

They called the program "Social Promotion" and it meant that no matter how bad your marks were, we were gonna pass you anyway so your self-esteem didn't suffer.

Now this made two problems, the first of which will take some background.

In the Canadian school system (NB anyway) you have to have a certain ammount of Credited Courses come Grade 12 in order to graduate. These credits only begin to accumulate in Grade 10. (1 Optional Grade 9 credit)

Now students require 17 credited courses in order to pass. Social Promotion begins in Kindergarden. So what happens when you've Socially promoted a child from Grade 6 All the way to grade 9, without keeping him back or following up on material they might not have grasped? They spend the next 3 years in Grade 10, because they don't have any credits to move up to Grade 11 at the end of the year.

This program of lowering the bar creates un-necessary hardships for students who actually want to be engaged in a classroom.

The 2nd problem is that you end up wasting valuable class resources on these under-achieving students by attempting to catch them up individually. What would need to be done is to KEEP THEM in the grade if they don't have the marks to pass, therefore eliminating senseless work that takes away from actual student progression.

We need to RAISE the bar in our systems of education and professional work in order to have a competent intelligencia and workforce.