DEAR ALIZARIN: To grade or not to grade LA drivers

I am winding down this school year, trying to squeeze in the last bit of inspiration I may impart to this group of students, to remain true to my expectations and ethics of education while still being fair, and to keep the energy for the final pile of grading that awaits me this week (final papers, final exam essays, and notebooks).    This week I had to think about the question that will come up with many students:  “If I will not pass regardless of my grade on the final, why do I have to take the final?” (Of course, their actual question would be much more whiny and include something like “But Misssssss, its boring. There’s no point.”)   My first instinct, following the lead of many teachers whom I respect, is to say not take it:  why fight about it and it is less grading for me in the end.   However, there is something instinctually wrong about this to me.  In a conversation with a friend, she pointed out that it is an opportunity to practice being a student in a very low pressure situation – there is no pressure of this grade leading to failing or passing.   So, I think I will require students to at least attempt an answer regardless of their current grade.  This will also be true to my own belief that the work I give in class is not about the final grade that it ‘earns,’ but about the process of practicing how to be a learner and engaged person in society.   I am sure I will get some blank exams back and some very feeble efforts, but for a few, it may be a chance to experiment without pressure, to see what she/he can really do.   This will be enough for me.   Then, on the other extreme, there is the student with 103 percent.  Should she have the option of opting out of the exam?   What do you think?   In the meantime, I rejoice in knowing I have two days of actual teaching left, followed by finals.  

 

Totally off topic, why is it that when driving I can not see one stupid driving maneuver , but they must always come in twos.   For example, if I see one person driving cluelessly with a blinker on, I will inevitably, before I get to my destination, see another later on.  Or, like today, an SUV makes a very illegal, very random U-turn in the middle of the street.  A block later, sitting at a red light, the car to my right makes another very illegal and random U-turn in front of me through the pedestrian walk.    A mysterious LA phenomenon. 

 

Costa Rica, here I come!!

 

Lychee