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<p>Far more likely is that the school will circle the wagons around the teacher. Your D2 may get a low grade in the class out of the teacher’s vindictiveness, and the counselor may write poor recommendations for her and arrange for transcripts to be sent late to worsen her college application success.</p>
<p>I suspect there’s some missing information here, since the sequence of events seems implausible (not a single student remembered the assignment? the school has absolutely no problem with an entire class no longer having any honors students?), but as reported, it sounds like “gotcha” teaching to me. Sure, students should check the syllabus, but there really isn’t any logical reason not to have ever referred to the assignment again, especially if it was to be an important course component, unless the teacher were trying to catch students in precisely this way.
While I suppose that could be seen as a valuable learning experience, really, it is a pretty artificial set-up, because I can think of few real-world situations in which an important deadline is mentioned several months in advance and then never referred to again. I mean, I assume that the teachers get a calendar in the beginning of the year in which the due date for semester grades is listed. I would be very surprised if there were no follow-up e-mail in the weeks leading up to that date. Certainly, I’ve never taken or taught in a college class in which the paper due date wasn’t reiterated a week or two in advance, especially because syllabi can and do change. </p>
<p>Teaching a kid a lesson about following rules is giving them a homework assignment in which the first step is “read all instructions first” and the last is “ignore steps 2-10,” which will invariably have been the most time-consuming (although I found those pretty obnoxious, too). Having a group of reasonably earnest high school kids do loads of work over a semester and then setting them up for failure by laying a trap for them is just mean and counterproductive.</p>
<p>If everything played out the way you say it did, yes, I’d take it up with the principal. </p>
<p>First, don’t assume the counselor will write a poor rec based on this. In a high performing hs, they usually want to present the best side to adcoms. And honors isn’t usually college level- OP mentioned a different college class… </p>
<p>OP, I like that you were willing to look at both options. </p>
<p>I do find it surprising no kid questioned the teacher about the last assignment. Mine had teachers who put some sort of summary as the last work to be done, then didn’t mention it. I don’t necessarily see this as a trick- but agree we don’t know the whole context. </p>
<p>Personal opinion: sure, see what you can do. If it doesn’t work, both the loss and the polite attempt to straighten this out become life lessons.</p>
<p>ucba, what would you do if a teacher called your child a “liar” and implied that your children cheated? While I agree that twoinandone probably should think this through before she acts, certainly you are not implying that she should do nothing? I think most parents would be pretty upset if a teacher spoke about their child in that manner.</p>
<p>I just think the whole focus here (on the syllabus, in the school, in the community) is on credit and grades, which is too bad.</p>
<p>I also noticed that kids are collaborating on snapchat over assignments and wonder how far that goes. In college it is possible this could be considered cheating. These kids might need a lesson on how to avoid that accusation later.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, the school has all of the power here. twoinanddone needs to figure out if the school will circle wagons around the teacher or if the counselor and principal will consider her side (although it appears that she already has a bad relationship with the counselor, which makes success less likely) before doing anything that could bring about retaliation against her D2. That could be another life lesson, but probably not one that she wants D2 to learn the hard way.</p>
<p>ucba, I do think that there is benefit in advocating for your child in a rational and reasonable manner. I also think it is important to let a teacher know that you find it unacceptable for him to refer to your child as a liar. I would approach it as a conversation not an argument. In the set of circumstances described by twoinandone, I would feel it was my responsibility as a parent to talk to the teacher. And honestly, if the teacher admitted to using those terms, I would not expect anyone to circle the wagons around him. I think most teachers and principals would agree this is crossing the line. If he denies it, then at least he is on notice that he’s on your radar screen. </p>
<p>The part that’s missing for me in this story is: why didn’t any of the students in the class ask the teacher about that assignment for the entire semester (or year, if it’s a full year course)? It’s in the syllabus – it seems to me a simple question.</p>
<p>I mean, maybe I’ve got a skewed viewpoint because I’m the parent of one kid who was the type to raise her hand and remind the teacher if she forgot to assign homework – and another kid who read every syllabus and rubric he ever saw with a fine tooth comb and then would debate the teacher on the nuances. </p>
<p>I can see something assigned orally kind of slipping through the cracks, but I would think there would be at least one kid who would have been pestering the teacher over the deadline – or another one who would have sought confirmation that the assignment would no longer be required. </p>
<p>So I go with life lesson on this. Either the kids should accept the consequences of their own inattention to detail – or if they really feel that the situation is unfair, then the kids need to take it upon themselves to get together and arrange a meeting with the teacher and/or principal to discuss their grievance. Not a situation calling for parental involvement. </p>
<p>The time for parental involvement was at the beginning of the course: A true helicopter mom would have read her kid’s syllabus at the beginning of the school year and nagged the kid all year long about that assignment. [-X </p>
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<p>He is on your radar screen… but what can you do if he denies it and the principal backs him up?</p>
<p>Remember that, from the principal’s point of view, who is s/he going to stand up for, the teacher whom s/he has a continuing working relationship with, or a parent whose complaint sound a lot like that of other baseless complaints from parents? The principal has probably heard plenty of similar complaints from parents whose kids actually were cheating, got caught, and were penalized; how is s/he to know that twoinanddone’s D2 is being falsely accused of cheating based on just a parent’s word versus a presumably trusted teacher’s word?</p>
<p>This does not mean that twoinanddone and her D2 should passively accept a false accusation of cheating. But they need to understand the risk of losing if they continue to fight, given the power disparity involved.</p>
<p>Preparation for any potential action may be to try to find out if other students and parents also have trouble with this teacher regarding false accusations of cheating. If numerous students and parents have the same complaint, that may improve the power balance.</p>
<p>I am with YoHoHo. If every single kid failed to do the project, something is screwed up. If I were in your shoes I would try to get the kids to handle it first. Cant they band together and talk to the teacher or a counselor? I would talk to the other parents, too, and get an idea of what went wrong. </p>
<p>As far as what to do, that is a tougher question. Was the teacher deficient in other ways? If yes, it would be worth talking to an administrator. If she were off in this one, weird way, and it hurt all the kids in the class equally, then I think I would just chalk it up to experience. </p>
<p>One son had a problem like this freshman year with a teacher who started off fine, but due to personal problems and stresses, became erratic as the year went on. She was inconsistent about deadlines between kids and classes, and finally gave the kids a test that had nothing to do with the material covered in class. The kids were all freaking out. After that incident, they, the kids, quietly confronted her the next day and pointed out that the test was over the wrong material, material not yet covered. To her credit she admitted her mistake (she just grabbed a test off the internet without checking it!) and gave a new test. She did not return the next year.</p>
<p>It was a good life lesson. Parents were consulted behind the scenes about what to do, but none of us went in before the kids did. And the kids banding together and talking to the teacher did the trick. </p>
<p>It entered my mind that perhaps the teacher forgot about the assignment as well! Since it is a dual course with only some students opting for the honors workload, it is not inconceivable that she overlooked it as well. When she went to compute grades perhaps she then realized she was down one project.</p>
<p>On the OP’s original post she wrote:</p>
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<p>With that said, she has no idea if another parent will speak up and pave the way for the vocal parent’s student to complete the project and receive the credit. That has to be taken into consideration if she/he takes the “life lesson” approach. If another parent takes the intervention route and succeeds in getting the credit, the above thought process would no longer hold true.</p>
<p>Senior Member</p>
<p>12:08AM</p>
<p>twoinanddone wrote:</p>
<p>It won’t change anything for my kids, but maybe it will be a black mark on his record.</p>
<p>Far more likely is that the school will circle the wagons around the teacher. Your D2 may get a low grade in the class out of the teacher’s vindictiveness, and the counselor may write poor recommendations for her and arrange for transcripts to be sent late to worsen her college application success. </p>
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<p>The counselor couldn’t do any less than she already does, which is nothing. My kids are going to college because they (and I) did all the work, researched, applied, followed up. There are no counselor recommendations, transcripts are ‘self-serve’ in that you order them, pay for them, and deliver them yourself. There have been no suggestions on where to apply to schools, how many, what type. There has never been a suggestion to take an SAT II. When I had a question about D2’s class rank, the counselor asked me where I was getting it from as it was wrong, and when I said it was on the transcript (wrong) there was no response. Parents have to sign off on the course selection for the following year, but the school will change it if it wants to, even taking away academic courses and substituting ‘teacher’s asst.’ for community service hours.</p>
<p>This is at a top school in what they claim is the number one public school district in Florida. If this is the best, I pity those trying to navigate the system in the worst.</p>
<p>How many honors kids are we talking about here? If it’s more than just a few, I find it hard to believe that not one of them would have done this assignment or at least asked when it was due. I wonder if the teacher reminded them of all other assignments, but not this one. Are the students claiming that the teacher said they didn’t have to do this assignment? Such a claim would be credible given the facts.</p>
<p>And what about all the honors work the students have done throughout the year? Guess that is just down the drain as well?</p>
<p>But OP has already stated upthread that she is not the type to complain, so I suppose for her child this will just have to be a lesson learned. </p>
<p>Off topic, but if any of my kids were to suggest they wanted to be teachers, I would point them to threads like this one. The perception will be that you are lazy and out to get your students. If give consequences (or low grades), you will be hunted down and shredded by angry parents because 1. what you did wasn’t fair (you should have reminded, taken very late work, given extra credit or any other number of things listed in other threads) and 2. you obviously have a vendetta against certain students.</p>
<p>The original post contained a pretty straightforward question as do many on cc. The responses quickly devolve into teacher attacks. </p>
<p>Don’t worry, for every thread attacking teachers, somebody will always come on to point out that teachers never do anything wrong, se we can be duly chastened.</p>
<p>I agree that something is wrong if ALL the students were dropped from the honors program. Yes, you could say it was on the syllabus, but high schoolers generally don’t go back any syllabus because they generally aren’t used very much…and even in college the items are mentioned. The “it’s in the syllabus” is often used if you missed classed and did not go back to the syllabus to check.<br>
I would approach it from “clearly this didn’t work for the student, so we are giving feedback so that next year it can be done differently”</p>
<p>OP here - lots of good points and advice in this thread! </p>
<p>My kid screwed up. The other kids did too. He is mad - at himself. He wouldn’t go along with a plan yesterday with other kids that wanted to go talk to the principal because he views this one as his responsibility.</p>
<p>I can still be upset with the teacher over other issues, but I won’t get involved (i.e go to the principal) on this issue because of how my kid feels about the situation. </p>
<p>And I applaud that group students who have the confidence to visit the principal and advocate for themselves. This is always the best first approach in circumstances such as these. Life is full of situations being worked out through compromise and communication. Good for them that they are giving it their best shot. I hope they are heard and something good comes of it!</p>