Grade 'A' Beef

We are coming up to the end of our semester, and it is always amazing how many students who so far have not cared what grade they get in the class, are now concerned with what grade they will recieve. "Is there anything I can do to pass your class? How Can I bring my grade up?" These phrases and more are heard daily throughout our hallowed halls. My standard answer to most of these students has been, "You should have thought of this when you were choosing to talk in my clas instead of listening, or turn in the work I assigned when it was due. I don't accept late work."

Perhaps the ones I don't understand, even more than these students, are the students who have an 88% , whose parents come in to complain in order to raise their little Johnnies' grade another 2% so that he can maintain his straight "A" average. "It's not fair for you to bring his GPA down like this. What can we do?" My answer, or at least the one I would like to give, "Get a life outside your child's. This is the grade he earned. Let him have a little disappointement in his life, it will prepare him for the real world--you know, the one where his Mommy and Daddy can't solve every problem he will ever have." The shame of it is, many of them will continue to do this for the rest of these kids life. I've had my rant. Have a great day.