This is going to be fairly short and sweet. Well short compared to some other posts, and to be fair, it's probably not going to be very sweet either.
Not too long ago, in a city not far from mine, a high school teacher was fired from his job for going against one of the school's policies. What kind of infraction could warrant being fired like this, you ask? Was he having an inappropriate relationship with a student? Was he encouraging poor behaviour? Was he employing bad language and treating his students poorly? Did he break confidentiality rules? No, he didn't do any of those things. So what did he do?
He awarded some of his students a mark of zero on their assignments. This got the man fired. Sound ridiculous? I thought so.
Apparently that particular city (or perhaps it was just that specific school division), had what is referred to as a "no-zero" policy. In other words, even if students don't hand in their work, they cannot be given a mark of zero. From what I understand (and I say that because this really doesn't make sense at all), the belief was that giving students a mark of zero harmed their education. Instead, teachers should encourage students to hand in their work, even if it's late. If they still didn't hand it in? A certain minimum mark had to be awarded regardless. What?!
Now, I spent a fair bit of time as a student myself... both in grade school and then in a post-secondary setting. I'm afraid that as a student I don't agree with this policy at all. How does that help students and their education? School teaches not only subjects but responsibility, hard work, time management, and honesty. This policy undermines ALL of those things. It really, truly, blows my mind that a school board is okay with this... that parents, teachers, school administrators, and students could be okay with this.
I'm sure some students, namely those who don't much care for their education and don't do their work, are all fine and dandy with it. But why is anyone else? What does this policy teach?
It teaches students that you don't have to hand in your work when the deadline rolls around. It teaches students that you don't have to put in effort to pass a course. It teaches students that you don't have to be responsible for your education, because someone else has taken on that responsibility, in the most irresponsible way most could ever imagine.
So here's where you should take issue with this. Are you a parent? Surely you want your child to pass each course at school and graduate with his or her fellow classmates... but do you want them to do so because a policy allowed them to graduate without learning anything? Do you want your child to graduate and then move on into the real world, only to realize that no-zero policies don't exist at work, college, university, in relationships, with paying bills? That's what I thought.
Are you a teacher? I'm sure you went through an extra four years of education to become a teacher because you want to teach. You want to inspire students to enjoy learning. You want to better future generations. So tell me, are you okay with getting paid to stand in front of a class room and not do these things? You go about your day as any other teacher would, but your impact is far less noticeable. That's what I thought.
Are you a student? Were you ever a student? Perhaps you found school enjoyable, or maybe you hated it. You could have excelled with minimal effort, excelled with a lot of hard work, done average, scraped by, or perhaps you really struggled and had to put in extra effort through tutors and extra study hours... maybe you even redid a couple of years. Are you okay with other students, who put in absolutely NO effort, who don't care one way or another, being able to pass a course and graduate because a school policy allows them to do so? It's outrageous.
When I was a student (which really wasn't all that long ago, though I'm fairly far removed from high school by now), we had consequences. If we didn't hand it in, you bet we got a zero. If we handed it in late, we were docked a certain percentage of our overall grade, ranging from 2% per day up to 20% per day. You can probably guess that we avoided those outcomes as best we could.
Why should students be able to do absolutely nothing while other students work hard for their grades and actually earn and deserve them, while the rest of us don't? What do they learn from it? They learn that they don't have to be responsible for anything. They don't learn how to be adults, they don't learn how to be intelligent individuals. I heard one student on the news say "It's creating a generation of idiots". I whole-heartedly agree.
The city has since amended the policy, allowing each school to make it's own decision about the no-zero policy and it's use. I frankly think it should be banned altogether. Kids should have to face the consequences of their choices. Don't do your work? Don't get the grade. It's your choice, you should have to live with it and deal with the outcome.
By the way, that teacher has since found a job teaching elsewhere. I would hope he's more appreciated there. Here's to all the good teachers in the world.
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