Quote #10: "Ms. Broome, can I get my make-up work?" - VW and KW The year is coming to an end (we only have about 4 more weeks left, ahhhhh!!!!) and some of my students are freaking out about their grades. We have been in this new semester for a little under 16 weeks and some of my students are just NOW beginning to freak out, it's so ridiculous. The two students I mentioned above came and saw me on Tuesday wanting some make up work to bring their grades up. Their percentages in my classroom where 12% and 9%, needless to say they both have REALLY solid "F"s. Then we looked over their attendance together and found that one had 25 absences and the other had 22 absences! This does not include tardies, which were numerous, and could mean they showed up anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes late! I looked at them and had to be honest and tell them that there really was no way that they were going to pass my class. I cannot re-teach huge unit projects we spent 5 weeks on because these students chose to skip and did not bother to get make-up work the day after they missed.
Then these same students asked if there was some way I could bump them up to a "D" through some sort of make-up assignments I gave them. Now look closely, because that last sentence exemplifies the disconnect my students have between their education and their grades. Grades are something teachers give to them, grades are subjective, and can be given out on a whim. I have told my students multiple times that I base my grades off percentages and have been VERY transparent about my grading system...but maybe these two students skipped that class period. Upon this grade request, I told my students that I would not "give" them any grade, that they would have to make up all the work that they were missing in order to pass. And in a very blunt response, I told them that it was unfair of me to give them false hope of passing because trying to make up 16 weeks of work while completing current assignments is impossible. It was a lose-lose situation: they either started freaking out or got mad and I felt like I had this huge knot in my stomach, as if I was the bad guy in this situation!
In the midst of all of this, I couldn't help but connect it to the larger problem of individuals not being held accountable or responsible for the mess they get themselves into. We always think that someone is going to forgive us or bail us out. It's almost American to fuck up (excuse my language) and expect to not be held accountable. We can spend as much as we want and declare bankruptcy, gorge ourselves on food and get gastric bypass surgery, consume as much as we want and ship our garbage to other countries, or not pay attention in school and then expect our teachers to let us make up work. There is a prevailing sense of entitlement in this country and it has to stop! Now I am not saying that I am going to fix it in the classroom by not allowing my students to make up work, but it has to start somewhere!
Many people are going to claim this sense of responsibilty/accountability should start at home but with so many adults in debt and living beyond their means how do we expect our kids to develop any different habits? Maybe school is where it should start. It is going to be a rough adjustment for some students, with many kids feeling like they are being "picked on" or thinking that their teachers are "unfair", but after a few years this trend might start to catch on. Talk about remedial life skills! A lot of adults don't understand that there are consequences for their actions therefore it is going to require quite a "salesman" to get kids to buy into this idea of personal accountability.
I felt absolutely horrible for telling my students they were going to fail my class. I kept thinking that their failure was my fault; I should have intervened earlier, I should have sought them out to give them make up work, I should have called their parents, etc. But, in the end, this type of thinking will only wear me out, the failure rate is something I can work at in the future, AND it does boil down to my students' every day academic choices. They might only be kids making dumb decisions, let's face it you make some REALLY stupid choices between the ages of the 15-19 years old, but at some point in time they will have to learn accountability. And isn't it better to be first exposed to this lesson in a class that, honestly, doesn't really count towards graduation requirements, rather than a class or job where the stakes are higher?
While I feel like the monster in this story, I know deep down that these students need to understand that sometimes you dig yourself into a hole so deep that you bury yourself.
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