The Rose Curve

What is the one thing on student’s minds as the school year winds to an end?
Grades.
That unknown makes them uneasy. The anticipation of waiting for their report card is a foreign feeling I have not felt in a while. I too dreaded getting that small manila-envelop stuffed with my report card on the last day of school. That was until I learned to art of "continuously inquiry." Always asking and checking on my progress throughout the year was the way I assured myself there would be no surprises in the end.
I can say, with great certainty, there are students who do not actively employ the “continuously inquiry” strategy. If it were common practice, we would not be hearing about situations like Derrick Rose.
Was I surprised? Not in the least. Was I disappointed? More than I would like to admit. If Bell Curve Grading is the process of assigning grades relative to the performance of the other students in the class, than athletes should be graded on The Rose Curve. What is The Rose Curve you ask? It is a system where athletes’ academic grades are based on athletic talent, not academic performance.
In this world, you’ve got to have something to sell: either you are going to sell your mind or your body. Today’s society covets athletic prowess more than intellect. The Rose Curve exists only because athletes sell their bodies at the cost of their education and we allow it. We want to be entertained. We want the biggest, fastest and strongest athletes our money and attention can buy.
The sports industry knows this and has tailored their successful supply chain. Their goal is to put out a product whose sole function is to increase revenue through TV ratings and ticket/apparel sales. The focus of this well-oiled machine is to pump out human-commodity after human-commodity concerned only with the final product.
If that means retroactively changing grades, faking SAT test scores or any other activity to get that product to the end of the chain as quickly and effortlessly as possible, it will done.
It is not Rose’s fault. He is a victim of the system and just happened to get caught. Rest assured, he will not be the last athlete who moves effortlessly through the assembly line by bypassed a few critical manufacturing stations. With all that has transpired, this seems like something only Hollywood could script.

Coach Red Beaulieu: Ah, it’s the Waterboy. I got something for you. This is his transcript from South Lafayette High School in Cherokee Plains Louisiana. Now the problem with that is there ain’t no South Lafayette High School in Cherokee Plains Louisiana. So obviously this is a fake. However, this is not a fake. This is from the NCAA. They don’t think you oughta play football anymore. So allow me to say this to you one more time: You’re Fired.
Derek Wallace: You didn’t go to high school Bobby?
Bobby Boucher: I was home schooled. I didn’t know I needed…
Lyle Loughran: Forged fake transcripts.
Bobby Boucher: No, I-I didn’t.

Waterboy (1998)