A news story from CBS broadcasted on Tuesday told the story of a teacher in a New Jersey high school who accepted donations to one of her favorite charities as a form of extra credit. Allegedly, the charity was fake, and she took the money and kept it herself, receiving an estimate of $1,400 from her students during the 2008-2009 school year.
As citizens of America, we are in the fortunate group of countries where a high school education is so commonplace that many students take school for granted. This particular news story makes me wonder; Is achieving the "grade" the only academic goal that matters to high school students? That is, does it matter whether we acquired the knowledge of how to solve an algebraic equation, or the only important thing that we got an A in the class?
By paying for grades instead of studying or instead of improving them by work, we are achieving the end without any work or means. Is the means, the actual learning and acquiring of knowledge, worth anything to anyone anymore? Are learning and work important, or just the good transcript?
How important is it to teens today that they receive good grades? Is paying to improve your grade is an act of desperation or an act of laziness? Originally, I believed it was an act of desperation; why spend money on your classes when you could spend money hanging out with friends or to buy something like an Ipod or a phone? However, in a affluent neighborhood like the one I live in, would it be worth five bucks to not study for a test or to skip some homework? I'm not sure. What do you think?
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Reading this I'm actually appalled. The fact that a teacher would use such a sensitive subject as grades to get money even falsely is just horrible. Even if she actually DID give the money to a charity it's unfair to ask students to give money in order to do well. Not everyone has money to spare for their grades.
ReplyDeleteTeachers here at New Trier like to tell you that "grades don't matter" but who actually listens to that? It's your peers that change your opinion. "What grade did YOU get?" is a very common question is the hallway. Schools, success, grades, ACT, these things are taking over students lives and it's a problem. People stay up night after night trying to do the best they can which is great, but not for their health.
Again, the fact that a teacher would use this against her students is completely appalling to me, especially because I know people who WOULD give money to boost their grades.
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ReplyDeleteDesperation or laziness?
In this case it seems a lot like desperation. This authority figure here is creating a lot of pressure here, exploiting even the most ethical students' actions by putting them on a disadvantaged playing field compared to those who do less work.
I overheard a conversation on the way to NT between to seniors one day. One of them was talking about several hundred dollar gift cards he gave to his teacher as,er, holiday "presents."
What concerned me with this is that, one, this kid probably got hundreds of dollars to blow on these gifts from his parents, and two, that his teachers may have felt some pressure to give this freeloading, lazy jerk better grades. Another problem is the type of environment this conversation created for this student's friend. Perhaps his friend felt he may need to do the same to have the same benefits.
So I agree the pressures change depending on where you live and what your financial standing is.