Two local news stories are making the same point, that meeting an ill-constructed standard is meaningless.

The first involves the amphitheater I wrote about a few days ago. The real and ongoing story is the excessive noise. Some folks who live several miles away claim they’re being kept awake if they try to go to bed before the concert is over. But the response of officials, dutifully repeated in the media, is the noise levels are within the boundaries set by the City Council.

Ford operates under an agreement with Colorado Springs that allows it to exceed the usual 50-55 decibel (dB) limit placed on outside, human-made sounds in residential areas. Fifty dB is equivalent to normal conversation levels, car traffic or kitchen appliances. But thanks to its Noise Hardship Permit, the city raised that significantly. The agreement states that amplified sounds are not allowed to exceed more than 110 dB for five minutes at a time, or average out to 105 dB for the same amount of time. – Denver Post, September 5, 2024

110 dB isn’t twice 55 dB. It’s a logarithmic scale, and every 3 dB is a doubling of sound intensity. 103 dB is a jet flying over at 100 feet. 110 dB is a jackhammer. So to say, “I don’t know what you’re complaining about. Our sound levels are within legal limits,” doesn’t mean anything if the legal limits are outrageously high.

Seemingly unrelated but making the same point is this story about demonstrating math proficiency for high school graduation:

Colorado next month may lower the passing score on high school math tests many students use to meet graduation requirements, the latest potential fallout from test scores that fell dramatically this year.

Without such a change, it’s possible graduation rates could drop for the Class of 2025, Colorado Department of Education officials told the State Board of Education on Thursday.

To graduate from high school in Colorado, students must show proficiency in English and math. Using SAT scores is the most common way that districts offer students to meet that requirement, since the test is already administered to students in their junior year…

The proposed change the State Board is considering would lower the minimum passing score on the math portion of the SAT from 500 to 480. Without that change, officials say the percentage of students who can use their SAT score to meet graduation requirements will drop from 45% in 2023 to 39% with these results. That means about 3,400 students might be looking for a last-minute alternative to meet graduation requirements before May. – Denver Post, September 3, 2024

Let me see if I’ve got this right: some kids can’t do math well enough to use their SAT scores to meet the standard for graduation so the solution is to lower the passing score from 500 to 480. Nowhere was it suggested that the solution might be to double down on math teaching so the kids were competent in math! By the way, 500 is not a high score.

Neither has it yet been suggested by the amphitheater owner that the amphitheater should decrease its volume. “After all, we’re within the standard!”

Jesus’ standards haven’t changed. Salvation is free, but discipleship is hard:

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior… (Titus 3.4 – 6, NIV)

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14.25 – 27, ESV)

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. (John 6.66, ESV)

Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth. – John Wesley