Is This Fair?

<p>So I took a Lit test a while ago (on Invisible Man), and our teacher is letting us do test corrections to receive half credit. My 77 would go up to an 88.5. So my teacher told us that tomorrow (today, this happened yesterday) was the only day we could hand in our corrections, and if you have them, they're good.</p>

<p>So I went home, did the corrections for about an hour, packed them up, & threw my test in my pile of Invisible Man papers, because the book was being collected this week. But much to my dismay, my teacher tells us to staple our corrections to our test and hand it in. I, not having my test, wait until after class to ask her about it. Here's what our conversation was like...</p>

<p>Me: What should I do if I don't have my test with me?
Teacher: Tell me what you think is fair.
Me: Well I think it'd be fair if you just accepted mine and let me bring in the test tomorrow. I mean, I did the assigned work and I'm ready to hand it in, its just that I can't because I was unaware we needed to hand back in our tests as well.
Teacher: Well that might be fair for you, but its not fair to everyone else because you'll have an extra day.
Me: Are you trying to imply that I'll go home and change my answers? Honestly, I'm very content with my work now, and I'm not going to change any of it tonight. I'll give you the corrections now if you want, I just don't have my test.
Teacher: Well how about this? When I grade your test corrections, two of your questions will not be considered.
Me: Okay, I guess.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, I learned later that a girl who came in later handed in her test corrections with no mention of the test and got off scotch clean. This is not the only incident I have had with this teacher, nor is it the first double standard I've had with her. Is it fair that she wouldn't even take my test corrections because I did not have the test?</p>

<p>Of course it's not fair, if you had the test corrections right then and there. You're going to do something about it, aren't you?</p>

<p>I'm going to try to, yes. She did not say how she decides which questions will not be considered (I got different points off for each question) and still ask her how that is fair, especially when another student was able to hand it in without the test.</p>

<p>Basically, she told me that its not fair to have an extra day (in which I would not even change my corrections, just put the test in my backpack), and is not being fair by having a double standard with the other girl's corrections.</p>

<p>Is this considered big of enough of a deal to bring up to my parents/possibly have them e-mail her or the department chairperson? Honestly, this is far from the first complaint students have had about her, myself included, and the department chairperson has received an overwhelming number of complaints.</p>

<p>"Fair" is a vague word in this case, the teacher's "authority" probably extends that much and is free to do whatever she wants. It'd be hard trying to fix anything, although by our eyes it may not seem "fair".</p>

<p>
[quote]
You're going to do something about it, aren't you?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Sometimes life's not fair. Sure she was a ***** to you, and you may feel justified in being a ***** back, but you may find that if you ignore it this one time she'll have a higher opinion of you and treat you more fairly next time.</p>

<p>Your teacher lets you do test corrections, boosting your mark, and you're complaining.</p>

<p>I'm complaining because of the double standard, where one girl was able to hand hers in without her test (the teacher did not ask her for it, just took the corrections), and when I don't have mine, I'm not going to get the credit I deserve for the work.</p>

<p>Your call...</p>

<p>I had a similar experience. We had to make test corrections where we put the correct answer and why the answer we put was wrong. Unlike most people in my class who put "I was wrong because I was stuupiiiddd," I had these paragraph long explanations about why my answer couldn't have been correct. My teacher gave them back to me and told me that she was only giving me a quarter of the points back instead of half because I quote "I'm not about to sit and read through a paragraph long answer." So much for actually learning things in school. The sad part about all of this is that this is the best teacher in the school.</p>

<p>@raiderade: Wow, so much for going above and beyond the call of duty... If I were a teacher I'd love to know that my students actually thought about why they made their mistakes.</p>

<p>^ Same here. Raiderade, your account just makes me want to scream. I hate teachers like that.</p>

<p>^^^Wow. If only my teachers were like that. You know when teachers are supposed to check HW they're just supposed to see if you did. Flip it and stuff. Well, not my math teacher. She collects it everyday and then brings them home. looks at EVERY single problem and then gives us a grade out 2. I can't say how many times I've gotten like a 1.92/2 or some other strange number like that. I can honestly say she has no life. Its hard to believe that she was once a cheerleader and is currently married to her school's star quarterback...sigh</p>

<p>^ That must say something about the succesfulness of cheerleaders. (Then again this is coming from someone in marching band.)</p>

<p>But sadly she's a good teacher and crazy smart....I guess not all cheerleaders are dumb.</p>

<p>Sucessful on the other hand...
That's a different story.</p>

<p>are you talking about Ellison's Invisible Man? or that HG Wells nonsense...</p>

<p>Actually I consider Ellisons' IM nonsense. I can hardly motivate myself to pick it up, let alone reading it.</p>

<p>@raiderade: My USH teacher is kinda like that but to a lesser degree...</p>

<p>Ellison's IM. Phenomenal writing, not so phenomenal story.</p>

<p>I talked to her about it, and the "penalty" is staying the same, and she's taking the first two question out of my corrections (meaning I can get 14 points considered for 9 questions... for the half credit, up to 7 points for 9 questions, less than one question per point.) However, she's made a lot of mistakes with my grading and I really would like to know what penalty she should get for making her own mistake.</p>

<p>Did you ask her about the other student?</p>

<p>Teachers are people. Many people are despicable. Seriously, if she were as smart as half of CC she wouldn't be a high school teacher anyway.</p>