Nose to the Grind

Robby has started his qualifying exams. His exams started yesterday, and he has been typing for hours on end. His work day was 14 hours yesterday. 14 hours of sitting in the same chair, churning out pages and pages of writing.

I've been busying myself with holiday duties: mostly wrapping the endless gifts piled in our bedroom (now there is a large pile of silver boxes in the living room) and assembling wedding albums.

I have five more weeks of school until the semester ends, and I just entered 15-week grades tonight. In my two most difficult classes, the class averages are 43% and 65%. The other three classes are honors, and the class averages are not so atrocious. They range from 75-85%. I strictly go by the traditional grade cut offs: 90% and above is an A, 80% & above is a B, 70% & above is a C, and 60% and above is a D. I've discovered that some teachers at my school are more lenient about giving out Ds. Some teachers lower the D cut-off percentage at 55%. Or, if the class is very difficult, some teachers consider an 87% and A. I'm not sure how I feel about those methods. Since a student can graduate with all Ds and don't need to retake a class if they earned a D in it previously, I guess teachers are motivated to give out more Ds, so that the F students don't have to return to the same classes next year. But does the student deserve this boon? And does a D mean that the student deserves to graduate from high school?

I have been more strict about sticking to my cut-off percentages. I don't think I should soften my grading policy in order to help inflate the number of students who are graduating from high school. Many kids are graduating who shouldn't be. Many students aren't learning. Ahhhh...the education system...

Sometimes there's so much to think about that my head starts hurting...