Report Card Time

Friday was the end of the quarter and I stayed after school that day until I finished my grades. Many teachers take all their papers home and spend the weekend grading. It is ironic that many of the teachers who are the least tolerant of students with late work are the worst procrastinators on the staff. A former department member was so lazy that he would never do his grades until the assistant principal came to him asking for them. Why do anything until they make you!
My students’ grades were pretty good, mostly because the students did so well on the quarter exam. While nobody got a perfect score, the average was more than 85% and only one student out of 92 failed. The one failing grade was an Asian student who has underachieved all quarter. I contacted the mother at mid-quarter and suggested that he drop down to regular chemistry. She declined to move him saying that his problem was that he is lazy—she was correct. He did improve for a short time then failed the last two tests of the quarter, dropping his grade to a D+. I have decided not to force him to move; why should I reward a lazy boy with easier work? His punishment will be to stay in Honors and either start to work or get a D or F. Earning a D in a class is actually much worse than earning an F. An F can be removed from the transcript when you re-take the class—a D never goes away.
In my last post I mentioned the young man with the “test problem” and his father’s arrogant email. I forwarded the father’s message to the boys’ guidance counselor and the registrar who were mad as hell. They both called the father to set him straight. He still has not been moved because the boy has not yet turned in the paperwork with his parent’s signature. H told the registrar that he lost it and told me that his mother threw it away. I filled out a second set of forms and sent him home with them Thursday. In the meantime he got a D on the quarter exam and ended up with a D+ for the quarter.
After being properly chastised by the counselor and registrar the father has not bothered me again about the schedule change. Both reported to me that they thought the father was an ass and took an immediate dislike to him. Neither will OK the schedule change the boy wants now—he will not be able to pick his new teacher.