JOANNE
PAYLING
Diary #17
What's
More Important: Learning the
Material or Learning Responsibility?
I'm a pushover. Students give me reasons why work isn't done on time, or why it is done poorly, and I give them the benefit of the doubt. Yes, I allow them to turn work in late. Yes, I allow them to redo work for a better grade. Other teachers shake their heads at me, believing that I am giving students the wrong message.
My students, I admit it, are learning that following directions the first time doesn't really mean much in Ms. Payling's class.
Sometimes, I wonder if the other teachers are right. After all, they have a great deal more experience than I do. Maybe next year, or in five or 10 years I will agree with them. I certainly chastise myself for being a pushover. Did the printer really quit working just as they needed it? Did they really forget to save the draft of their assignment? Was the student's cousin really killed in a car accident? Did Grandma really die last night? Was the homework really at Dad's house, but the student was at Mom's, unable to get it?
The excuses, real or imagined, roll in regularly. Am I Solomon? Is it my job to determine who is telling the truth and who is not? I prefer to trust people. I prefer to give people second chances. Most of all, I prefer that my students learn the material, rather than get a zero, whatever the reason.
One student is very adept at handing in the minimum, then screaming when the grade is mediocre or failing. He has a hundred excuses, all of them convincing. I am certain he believes I am a pushover, allowing him to get away with poor work the first time, then receiving the option to re-do and improve the low grade.
Has he caught on to the method behind my madness yet? Yes, madness, because I am at least doubling my work by accepting and grading an assignment more than once. Does he realize that for all his procrastination and sloppy work and not following directions initially, he still ends up doing the work? Does he realize that what I really care about is the fact that he EARNED an A or B, instead of a D or F? That grade, based on the given rubric, tells me that he did the work, that he mastered the material.
Am I harming him for life by not teaching him responsibility? In the real world, deadlines exist. In the real world he may well have a boss who expects excellence the first time. Am I harming him? My answer as a new and undoubtedly naïve teacher is, I don't think so.
My students are 13 and 14 years old. Many of them just don't have the maturity yet to understand the ramifications of responsibility and what the "real world" expects. I am happy if I can just get them to learn the material. Maturity and responsibility will develop without me having to hand out D's and F's routinely.
I feel sure there are better ways to handle this issue, but for now, with my beginner level knowledge, I will continue with this method and try to ensure that my students are learning the material, if not the responsibility they also need.
