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Author Topic: Arrant pedantry in action  (Read 1074 times)

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Offline Brinestone

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Arrant pedantry in action
« on: September 19, 2006, 10:01:57 AM »
So my little sister, Emily (she played mafia here a while back), had to miss a day of school to attend a family reunion over Labor Day. The school policy is that they have three days to make up work missed because of an absence. Her English teacher, however, refused to let her turn the work in late because she had known about the absence ahead of time, so she wanted Emily to turn everything in before she left. My mom and Emily kept at the teacher until she caved and allowed Emily to turn in an essay that was due the day she was gone.

Emily is a very good writer. She did very well on the essay. One of the things the teacher was being a huge stickler on was the use of first and second person. There was to be no use of I or you anywhere in the essay.  :sarcasm: Emily missed a single you somewhere in her essay.

The result? The teacher gives her a zero (out of sixty points) on the essay and writes, "See me tomorrow in access."

I'm guessing the zero isn't really about the you so much as it is about the power struggle over Emily's absence. Still, that kind of non-mistake costing her full credit on a fairly major assignment? Come on.

If this doesn't get resolved on its own, what are the next steps? Would Emily have any sort of case to bring to the principal or a counselor? Is grading pretty much the realm of the teacher, subject to her whims? Might Emily be able to transfer into another teacher's class?

I read my mom Jonathon's essay, "Arrant Pedantry," and she cheered with me over certain perfect lines. Oy. This is really annoying.
Ephemerality is not binary. -Porter

Offline pooka

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Arrant pedantry in action
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2006, 10:23:06 AM »
If the teacher has a written policy of giving a zero for the word "you" (And I've known teachers who did) then it's in her court.  If she doesn't, taking it up the chain might work, but it's not like everything will ever be okay between them again.  She would downgrade her on everything from now on.  If there isn't the option of changing classes (with the possibility of this teacher poisoning whoever she goes to next) then I'm not sure what to tell you.  

My kids are pretty much condemned to be riddled with similar problems for the rest of their school career because my husband firmly believes school attendance rules should be jerked around as much as possible.  It's a good thing I'm fine with homeschooling if it comes to that.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."  Comte de Saint-Simon

Offline Farmgirl

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Arrant pedantry in action
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2006, 12:41:47 PM »
Is there a way she can prove another classmate used a personal pronoun and did NOT get a zero?

I don't know what grade level Emily is in, but I know back when I was in high school, I had one teacher who hated my guts based on religion and refused to give me anything higher than a C no matter what I did.  Since it was Chemistry and most of the grade was based on lab work we did (which was pretty subjective) I had no real recourse.

But I would think if she could show inconsistency between how the teacher graded others and her, she would have something to go higher up with.   Can she switch to a different class/teacher?

FG
 
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Offline pooka

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Arrant pedantry in action
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2006, 02:14:24 PM »
What grade are we talking about?
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."  Comte de Saint-Simon