One of the great things about teaching in Asia is that the teacher is actually sometimes right. If a student fails a test, then shock, it’s the fault of the student, not the teacher. A teacher is there to facilitate the learning process, not babysit. Especially high school students. Sheesh.
Chris
My eyes have been opened. I am planning to sue Harvard Medical School for not admitting me (even though I didn’t apply). I will then sue, or threaten to sue, my way through classes as I hear they can be quite difficult if you actually have to study and do the work and stuff. Upon graduation (at the top of my class of course. My lawyer will see to that), I will accept only the most prestigous residency assignment . I will then litigate my way to a chief surgeon position within a few years of med school.
Jeez, this plan is so much easier than the traditional way all the suckers do it.
Every year, about this time, I get really jealous of the several teachers I know. Summers off!! Man, that would be great!
Then I read something like this. If I were ever a teacher, I would seriously be a high risk of strangling a parent or two, or an administrator. You couldn’t pay me enough to deal with shit like this. In a way, I almost feel kind of sorry for this kid. What will she do when mommy and daddy aren’t there to pull her sorry slacker ass out of the fire?
Oh, right. She’ll always have her lawyer.
I agree that school’s need to have some kind of policy for retesting. Every math teacher I had in high school would let students who failed a test retake it for a 70, but I don’t know if it was a universal policy. I never heard of such a policy for any other subjects, like English or history.
I wonder if this girl did all the usual grad-celebration stuff. If I was a relative of her’s, I wouldn’t feel right giving her a check or dropping by the house for cake after the ceremony.
Universal policies for retesting and homework and grades? I say no to all three.
One of the things teachers go through all their schooling for (or at least, what I have seen) is to get used to creating agendas, assignments, and methods of grading etc for the classes they will teach. Now, maybe I just come from an old-fashioned school (and currently attend an old-fashioned university), but in my classes, instructors hand out a little sheet of paper called a syllabus. This paper describes how the class will be handled, as far as assignments, tests, and grading goes. Heck, some instructors will even let you miss a couple of assignments without ANY penalty. My point is-- I would be thoroughly surprised if the teachers from the OP did not do something similar to handing out a syllabus at the beginning of the school year. (At least talk about it in class).
It really chafes (sp?) my ass that people can get away with plagiarism etc etc and wind up getting the same grades that I work my ass off to get.
LilShieste
Re: Universal policies for make-up tests.
When I was in Jr. High there was a district wide policy. If a student failed a test than that student would have 5 school days from the day the test was returned to do the make-up work (whatever the teacher assigned), and take the test on the student’s own time. (Not during regular class hours.) The best a student could do is an 80.
Worked great.
When I went to HS in CA, there was no retest policy—because students were expected to pass the first time.
Worked like a fucking charm.
She plagarized a paper, and still got partial credit? She should have gotten an F for the paper, and perhaps been suspended for a while for pulling that stunt. Plagarisim (sp?) is despicable. The little slacker knew better. The hell with her.
pepperlandgirl got my point – to prevent this kind of problem, there should be a retest policy, it should be district or school-wide, and it should apply in all academic subjects. Period.
While there is certainly going to be a variety of different teaching styles and methods being used, there shouldn’t be so much discrepancy between different sections of the same class (i.e. Mr. Jones and Mrs. Sees general track, freshman level, Algebra I sections) that a 90 in one teacher’s section is the equivalent to a 93 in the other, especially when percentage grades translate into letter grades which translate into quality points which translate into grade point averages which determine honor roll and class ranking.
Obviously in some subjects, test grading is always going to be subjective – English, for example. But in classes in which objective grading is easily accomplished, and the goal of those tests is to demonstrate the students’ mastery of identical subject matter, there should be no significant variation.
I have no sympathy for this girl. I actually did fail one year of high school, and put in double time the next to catch up. It wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t easy, but I didn’t fall behind.
All I’m saying is that it’s very often better to just accept the consequences of your actions. There’s always summer school.
Ha! Let’s hope this bunch of yahoos get what they deserve!
Sue this, bitch!
These two stories tie together beautifully!
Ms. Joice, the Arizona teacher, was probably ordered to do the same thing. If she hadn’t, Little Miss Lawsuit would have failed outright, and the exam grade would have been moot.
P.S. It’s plagiarism.
Oh, and:
Why so subtle? Why didn’t he just have her kneecaps broken?
This is funny:
I’m not casting aspersions on Ms. Joice, but I wonder why she agreed to the retest.
Really? He can say that, but…
Yeah, excellent at jumping through your hoops.