Day 98

And the saga continues.

If you read back a little bit, B-Ball Boy and his mother had e-mailed me saying that my grading practices were "a bit unfair" and that they think he should have gotten a better grade than what he earned. Now, they've contacted the administration and started complaining to them. What is so wrong with earning a B? The boys didn't do anything spectacular to show me that they earned anything more. Playing games in class? Not being on task when they should have been? When a project is designed for 5-7 hours of work and then being able to turn that in and I gave them close to 10 hours of work time and they still couldn't get it in? That is not my problem nor my fault. Now, I just learned that he told one of the administrators that he turned in "extra credit" to make up for those points. I don't offer extra credit. Never had. The only thing that I said they could possibly get "extra" on was if they did 4 scenes instead of 3. They didn't. They didn't even turn in their commercial(s), but I gave them points for it. Gah! This is just getting dragged out more and more. I can't believe that someone would fight me over getting a B. Do they still think that this is a "bird course" and they can just fly right through it? I'm not that type of teacher. If the student is in class, then that is what they should be doing.

Aren't you in school for Academics first and Sports second? I would understand if the student had an IEP or something along those lines, but none of these students did plus it was a group assignment. Even if 3 members of your group are on a sports team, that leaves the other 2 to do work while you are missing. That doesn't mean you can just come in and play games and let the other people get on with the work that you are supposed to be doing. GAH! Frustrating!

There are times that I just want to throw up my hands and say "That's it!" because of the stupidity and ignorance of some of the students and their parents. Some parents it seems like feel that they can bully the teachers into getting what they want even if their student really didn't do the work. I'm not going to give in and if that means that I take it to the school board or I say what needs to be said to the administration, then that is what I will do. Yes, that may be career suicide, but if it doesn't change now, then when will it? There is no way that I would have done what these boys did, and when I discussed it with other teachers and family members, they all said that there is no way they would be fighting over getting a B in a class where they really didn't do the work. They would just have to accept it and move on. Just because you're on a sports team doesn't mean you can get away with not doing any work.

Sorry for the rant, but it needed to be said. This is one of the reasons I'm not a big fan of the Public School System the way it is right now. I'm all for fairness and for defending your right to learn, but in my opinion, the American school system needs to take a hint from other school systems and start putting focus on Academics instead of Sports. When they start doing that then maybe we can start moving in the right direction and have educated and respectful people instead of what we have today. Maybe people would start to put a focus on Academics and leave sports for what they should be . . . extra-curricular and not attached to anything school related.