Exams

Exams started today. It always seems wrong to me to give an exam in English. It always seems to me that for something like English, a term paper is more appropriate. After all, English is really more about ideas as opposed to facts. Obviously I want my students to remember the things we read, but whether my students have lists of characters memorized is less important to me than their ability to express the ideas we discussed in writing. So I end up giving a lot of essay tests which kind of split the difference. I'm not very happy with that either, but it is a compromise.

Regardless, it really bothers me when parents plan family trips during exam times. We have a system where if a student's grade is high enough and their attendance is good, they can  buy off the exams. I'm actually all for that. It disperses the grading load some. However, some parents seem to think that if they have the hours, then it's a given that we will sign them off to buy-off the exams regardless of their grade. Then, in the worst cases, they cart them off to some other state meaning there is no option to fix a poor grade. It really puts the student in an awkward position. In some cases, failing the exam means that they could fail the class. Talk about adding pressure.

I just don't get it. Why spend all the money to send their kid to our school if they are then going make it more difficult for the kid to do well. *shakes head sadly*