Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan
At Cepero Bonilla high school this year the physics teacher failed 500 students. My neighbor’s daughter was one of the victims of the “terrible” 61-year-old teacher who “knows it all.” He failed the girl and her mother went to protest at the school, where she didn’t expect to meet the other 500 parents at the door.
No one could enter the school: not even the children of mom and pop could enter, she told me, meanwhile poking me in the right shoulder. She heard, in the middle of the poking, a lieutenant colonel shout he’d blow the teacher’s brains out if his son lost a year.
As she’s a buddy of the English teacher, who is even more appalled by the attitude of the physics teacher, she managed to slip in and talk with the one “responsible” for the failure of the students. The first thing she asked him was why he hadn’t given her daughter, who is so good in all other things and always participates in political activities, the grade she needed to meet the teacher's standard. She received a negative response which annoyed her but there was nothing she could do: the girl will have to be re-evaluated along with her 499 classmates and come back to retake the exam.
Meanwhile, I got the whole story from another neighbor, even more horrified than the English teacher, who encouraged her to be careful, because she was sure that the teacher “had it in for the girl” for “some reason.”
It seems that no one seems to realize in this country that when a student fails an exam it’s because she doesn’t have the knowledge necessary to show she’s mastered the material of the school year and that, obviously, she needs to study it again.
Posts
1 comment:
I'm with you. At least part way.
I taught at the college level for many years and from time to time would be confronted by a student or students who wanted to know why I had not given them a passing grade "just like everyone else".
I would point out that marks were not 'scaled' to ensure that the weakest students passed but were an indication of the amount of material learned based on exams, assignments and laboratory work during the term.
The question here: "why he hadn’t given her daughter, who is so good in all other things and always participates in political activities, the grade she needed to meet the teacher's standard" seems to ignore the education in favour of an arbitrary standard based, perhaps on political involvement.
On the other hand, we used to have the idea that if a few students failed, it was their fault- lack of work or ability or motivation etc. but if EVERYONE failed, it was more likely the fault of the teacher.
Instructors who use exams written by others when they may not have covered the material or who 'cherry pick' exam or assignment topics that stress points not taught or who 'target' a select class for its 'attitude' should accept the responsibility and re-examine their students under peer review.
Post a Comment