When I was in sixth grade, Mrs. Harris gave me a “C” just because I handed in an essay on paper without margins. “Margins are respect for the reader,” she said. No one praised effort back then. They corrected mistakes. There was no “Good job for trying” — it was “Sit down and do it right.” And you know what? It worked. We read Huckleberry Finn, wrote essays by hand, solved math problems without calculators, and no one cried over a bad grade. It was strict. But honest.

When my grandson Aiden showed me his “grade,” it wasn’t a score — it was some colorful sticker with an owl. “I got a green one, so I did good!” he said. Then I found out he can’t read cursive — only print. They don’t teach handwriting anymore. Instead, they have lessons about emotions. He knows what gaslighting and toxic behavior are, but can’t find Japan on the map. Honestly? This isn’t progress. It’s sabotage. We’re not giving kids skills — we’re giving them pillows so they won’t get hurt by the world. But the world isn’t always soft.

I get it — times change. But when an honor student can’t write a logical paragraph, that’s not evolution. That’s decay. Back then, you were taught to think. Now, you’re taught to feel. And it’d be fine if they taught both. But my grandson has six different “personal projects” in Google Docs and zero actual essays. Why did we trade knowledge for creativity? Why is literacy now just an “extra skill”? And most importantly — who really needs that?

Recently, I sat down with Aiden and suggested we write a letter by hand. At first, he struggled. Then he wrote a whole page. Then he said, “Grandma, this is nice.” Because yes — writing by hand grounds you. Real words on real paper. And if we want to save education, we need to bring back not just discipline but meaning. So a child feels not only their emotions — but also responsibility for what they write, say, and do.