A Sad Remark

How should we comply with our assignments or any requirement at school? Should we simply meet minimum requirements? Should we do it for compliance’s sake? Does it depend on some factors only?

Ideally, we do our requirement in compliance with all the instructions and requirements of the activity or assessment at the same time giving our best to accomplish them. We shouldn’t just do them in order to have something to submit. And also, we should be learning while doing all that are required of us as students.

I was having a chat with someone. He was relating a sad remark by one of his classmates. His classmate remarked, “I don’t want to do my assignment with my best anymore because the teacher will just check the form anyway, over the substance of my paper.”

What a sad remark. It made me reflect on how I scored or marked my students’ papers so far. Honestly, I didn’t do my job in compliance to my ideals. It would turn out that I was just all talk. Because, I gave myself excuse, I wanted to make my life easier, and so I just checked and checked.

Even though there are so many who would do their activities for compliance sake, there are also those who would do theirs with everything that they can give. And one way of recognizing their efforts would be to check their papers with thoughtfully.

Before any assessment, rubrics for scoring should have already been prepared. It would be best to mention there all the consequences for submitting late, for giving incomplete output, for not following instructions on syntax and mechanics, etc. All the things that we put consideration when checking, should be mentioned in our rubric.

Preparing well for assessments may really be tedious but the prize will be worth it. You can always show it to students if they complain regarding the checking. To make it better, giving comments to students’ essays will be a good thing. They will believe that you checked their papers.

We can’t blame some who feels dejected after trying their best on something. Only to find that the teacher checked only the form. A little about the substance and the rest is history.

On the other hand, there are those who just complied with requirements with little effort and they are being rewarded generously. It is understandable if the work done is indeed correct but what I am referring to are those that were done callously but were scored thoughtlessly. Sometimes it’s just unfair.

I admit that scoring is very challenging. But we entered the teaching career fully knowing what we have signed up for. It really isn’t easy, it’s not a joke, it’s not a day job, it’s a full day job. And if we feel like dragging ourselves doing the things that were mentioned in our job description, then it may be time to reconsider doing another career. Or perhaps, we should reflect and re-center ourselves. It’s not that we don’t like our job, we just failed to do some rejuvenating activities so we wouldn’t be burnout by all the pressures and stresses.

Sometimes, it’s heartbreaking as teachers to realize that we are the ones who shatter our young people’s budding self-confidence. it shouldn’t be. We should be the one to build them. I heard my philo teacher say that education can make or break. I’m not sure whether I understood his point but it seems that it literally applies sometimes. I’d like to be the one who builds. If not, at least someone who is trustworthy for the sake of students’ progress.

I am still a student myself and I would feel bad if I know that I did my best but my grade does not do justice to my efforts. I equally admit to submitting requirements for compliance but during those times, I still appreciate it if teachers give feedback, good or bad, but delivered with dignity on their part.

I don’t know! Maybe, we just do our part whatever role we play. As parent, as student, as teacher, or as anyone, we should do our best to up our system.