Dear Alex's Teacher,
I understand that once a week, you assign Current Events to Alex's class. From what I see at home, Alex does find an article in the newspaper each week. She neatly writes out the who, what, where, when, and why of the story, and staples the article to the back of her paper like she's supposed to. Alex does not only pick the easy articles that are short, but always chooses good articles about interesting things, like NCLB, or Jena, even when they're very long and they take extra time.
Alex came home today upset that you always give her a zero in Current Events. She explained that you told her you're doing this because she does not use a "real" newspaper article, but instead, reads the newspaper online and prints out the article from the computer. Alex told me she told you that we do not have a subscription to the newspaper. Perhaps you are aware that the school library will not let Alex cut out articles from their old newspapers, but Alex did explore that option in early September.
I do not think it's fair at all that you are giving Alex zeros on an assignment simply because she does not have a newspaper subscription. If anything Alex should get extra credit for her creativity in working around the problem, instead of not turning in anything at all. School is mandatory. You can not penelize a student who can not afford to do work the way you want it done, if the way they do it includes the same information. Should your giving Alex zeros in Current Events encourage me to tell Alex not to bother doing any projects that involve oaktag, since that's not in the budget either? Sure, she could staple four pieces of paper together to create one paper that's the same size as oaktag, but I'm sure that's not acceptable to you.
I hope Alex's gym teacher does not follow your lead and give her a 4 since her sneakers are only from Old Navy and not from Foot Locker.
Thank you in advance for reconsidering your grading policy. We will look forward to Alex getting grades in the near future that reflect her work and not the supplies she has to work with.
You suck,
Elaine
7 comments:
That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Can you go to the administration? (Or have your Aunt, if she's even willing?)
So long as it's from the online version of the paper, what gives? Myself, and many others don't read print media much anymore...
it's terrible!
That is a ridiculous distinction. If she's reading the newspaper online and getting a story that's news and current, what's the problem? It's not like she's picking some foolish story about a kitten or something off of someone's blog. There are lots of people who only read newspapers online now--I don't have any newspaper subscriptions, but read a couple news sites everyday. The teacher has to get used to that.
I'd also suggest having someone take the issue to administration or a guidance conselor if the teacher won't change her mind. Does she really want to force kids to pay for a newspaper if they don't have one at home?
i agree, that's a ridiculous grading policy. and your letter is very good. um, i'm sure you don't intend to write "you suck", do you? i hope this will make alex's teacher think again. probably they just didn't think about the possibility of someone not having a newspaper subscription. can anyone really be that stupid?
You are absolutely right. Punishing Alex because of the family budget is wrong and disgusting.
For educated folks, teachers can be extremely idiotic.
That is by far the most idiotic thing I've heard in a while. The teacher obviously doesn't use the internet much, or they'd see that newspaper websites print many of the same and more articles than there are in the newspaper. Sad that a person that stupid is teaching children :(
--Dragon
This cracked me up. Not that your sister got a zero, but that you wrote a letter that was more logical and effective than your aunt could have written (if she'd been so inclined...). Anyway, I've been reading your blog all afternoon at work (working backwards) and I just wanted to say that I am enjoying it very much.
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