Vignette 5: Getting What They Deserve?

February 15th, 2012.

     Well, our friend Joan has found herself in an uncomfortable situation for sure.  She is the newest staff member and they are in the midst of a department meeting.  Two seasoned teachers are brainstorming ideas to get children to their classes and have them hand in their homework on time.  They are coming up with atrocious ideas.  One teacher suggested that the students write a quiz at the beginning of each class, thinking that would get them there on time.  If they miss the quiz, the receive a zero.  The other rules they had in place were needlessly vicious.  I am certain that the tactics they are thinking of implementing would decrease student happiness.  The brave young Joan stated that non-academic factors should not be included in the children's marks.  The other two teachers are trying to think of ways to correct and grade the behavior of students, which Joan argues decreases the validity of their grading system.  In their minds, a grade doesn't just tell a person about a students achievement levels, but also about how this student behaved in class.  It's a bad idea because there is no objective way to mark a child on their behavior.  The line becomes too blurred for a teacher, and Joan thinks that it shouldn't happen at all.

     I agree with Joan whole-heartedly.  There are a few similarities between this vignette and vignette 4.  The difference being that these two teachers want to implement these methods of grading student behavior for all of their students.  Personally, I think this would add far too much to their workload, and as Joan mentioned, strip the marks of meaning.

     I would also like to comment that I pity every one of the children that are learning under Mary and Helene, the two who would like to heavily consider student behavior.  It sounds like they are running a prison rather than a school.  In fact, it sounds like there may be more freedom in a prison than in their classrooms.  They want to implement daily quizzes, they have unreasonably harsh late work policies, and they said that, "[students] don't deserve a high grade if they don't work for it all year long."  These women are forgetting that their students are children!  They can't be worked like dogs, they need breaks!  They need to be treated fairly.

     Through out this program, I have been constantly reminded of Rick LaVoie's FAT City movies.  I learned so much from them, and I think that teachers everywhere could learn from Rick.  He mentioned that children should be treated no differently than adults.  I have a feeling that if the policies that Helene and Mary are proposing were inflicted upon them, they would be very unhappy.