Education | Teaching
My Lost Battle for Academic Integrity
Inside the grading trenches
Life for an American public high school teacher is not easy.
Perhaps this is an understatement; it’s more akin to a daily battleground of competing interests. Students want easy grades; parents expect nothing less than an A grade; administrators want to please the parents, and the teachers’ integrity is often compromised.
Trying to provide a well-rounded education while meeting the demands of standardized testing, college preparedness, and curriculum guidelines is exhausting. Balancing these conflicting interests has affected my mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
I’m toast.
Why? Grading is a chaotic power struggle orchestrated by the Wizard of Oz, with some bumbling administrative lurking behind the curtain. There’s no point in trying to understand the absurdity and the wizardry of a world where A grades are supposed to materialize from thin air — conjured by parental pressures and contributions.
I speak from experience.
I never was a very good wizard at this, which is probably why I was considered the toughest AP English teacher on campus. Grades were earned in my classes, much to the dismay of the celebrity…
