Escape from Chemisry!

When I was in graduate school I was taking a statistics course and, when the first exam was returned, if the student had failed, the teacher stapled a filled out add/drop form to the student’s exam. It was her not so subtle way of letting you know that you did not belong in her class.

Some of my colleagues have similar ways of getting rid of students they don’t think measure up. I, on the other hand, am not as quick to press the matter when I feel a student should drop. In my experience, if you force the matter, the student and parent will always believe that you acted rashly and that they could have passed if allowed to stay. I prefer when the student or parent throws in the towel and requests the change in schedule, which usually occurs after the student’s grade has tanked and they have their “epiphany.”

Surprisingly, some teachers make it difficult to get out of their subject. I don’t know why, you would think that a bored or failing student would become a discipline problem in class and you would want to get rid of them. I have often spoken to teachers who take a student’s underachievement as a personal insult to them; the punishment being that the student has to stay.

I have already lost one student this year to a schedule change. She requested to be moved from Honors Chemistry to regular Chemistry because she was struggling, while in reality. she had a B- and was not doing that poorly. I think that she realized that Honors would require a level of study and commitment that was more than she was willing to give. The mother emailed me requesting the change; asking it be done as soon as possible. When I approached the assistant principal in charge of approving the schedule change she was reluctant, feeling that the student should be required to stick it out. I was able to convince her that the change should be made and the paperwork was processed that day.

I have two other students who I feel should drop, one in AP Chemistry and one in my regular Chemistry class. As is my policy, I am not pushing the change now. Both parents have been contacted and neither parent wants their student to drop. I am waiting until their situation is serious enough that neither parent will fight the process. This should occur for both of them in about three weeks at the end of the quarter. Both of them are failing now.

Another student has made it clear, through nonverbal communication, that he is not happy with me as a teacher or the amount of work I require. After the quiz last Friday, he asked to get a pass to Guidance. The average grade on the quiz was 83% while his grade was 35%. I said I could not, explaining that all passes to guidance had to be made through his study hall teacher. He responded with mild disrespect, but went back to his seat, put his head on the desk, and fell asleep. Soon a request will come from his mother to arrange a schedule change; a request I will honor as soon as the quarter ends. He will then become some other teacher’s problem.