Friday, March 12, 2004

New Low In Teaching In my past nine years of teaching, I've put quite a few grades on report cards.  Lots of grades.  There's been somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand students sitting in my classrooms over the years, and for each one I tallied up what they earned in my class.  Never once did I ever give a grade to a student who wasn't my student.  Never once did I put a grade in my gradebook for a kid I never met.  I never even considered it as an option. It's an option in Philadelphia, though.  The story goes that a kid named Aubrey was notified of his truancy from Gillespie Middle School.  Problem is that Aubrey wasn't enrolled at that school.  He was attending another.  That's a problem in and of itself, but one that is perhaps understandable to a certain degree if it's merely a clerical error.  The big stink comes in finding out that even though Aubrey never went to class at Gillespie, some of his teachers were giving him grades anyway.  He managed to pull at least one B, C, and a D for classes he never even set foot in once.  Now I've heard of teachers who just pulled grades out of thin air and put them in the report card.  That's deplorable.  But at least in those instances they knew who the kids were.  The students actually existed in their classrooms.  What I find unconscionable is that apparently some Philadelphia teachers will give you a grade regardless of whether or not they've ever met you.  What the hell were these "teachers" thinking?  "Yeah, that Aubrey never seems to be around.  In fact I don't even know what he looks like.  But he sounds like a good kid, so I'll go ahead and give him a C." If these people aren't fired immediately, I'd hope that the parents with kids at Gillespie have the sense to yank them out of that school and put them somewhere else.  Anywhere else.  I mean why waste their kids' time?  They'll get a grade whether they show up or not. Wow.  Credit for work you never did.  Credit even though you never showed up. This explains Bush's National Guard record. Related links: Bizarre Truancy Mix-up:  link to this whole story Pictures of my students over the last five years Bush in the National Guard:  Political cartoons about the story 7:11:04 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.