..for the sake of justice...

Thanksgiving weekend was fun. We beat the guys in a game of Cranium on Friday and they were moping around for a while.

I'm annoyed right now. Some organization did a thing on my high school "with a special emphasis on...Parsell" (a teacher). Oh, that made me go grrr. Sure, Parsell was helpful to Jessie, but she's horrible to everyone else and she did not deserve any recognition. I'm glad Kev was recognized, because he is a great person and a great teacher. But Parsell? I think not. What about Angie? She helps more people and is a lot more liked than Parsell is. What about Doc? He's a great teacher and he does more for his students and this town than any of the other teachers. They deserve the recognition more than Parsell does.

Parsell is just a grumpy old lady who pulls random (and very unfair) grades out of her butt. I wasn't screwed over much when I was in her class, but that was because I was one of the types that she wasn't as hard on. I was the one who was perceived as "top of the class" and so she automatically gave me one of the highest grades like she always does with that type of person (whether they deserve it or not). Then there's the "poor-little-they-do-their-best" type. These are people who are obviously worse students and worse at the subject matter than others but who still manage to get higher grades than the third type of people: the "average" ones. The "average" ones are not necessarily average; they could be one of the best in their class but just not have the reputation as "top of the class". These people are the ones that I frequently see screwed over. I've seen these people work their butts off studying something that they understand well, only to get a worse grade on the assignment than the "poor-little" students who didn't even read the book the assignment was on. I've seen these people write a good paper only to be beat by the students (some are "poor-little" and some are not) whose writing abilities are far below that of the "average" student's.

How can this be right? How can this be fair? It might be ok if she told them that she was going to challenge some of them by grading them harder with the intention of motivating them to do their best. It might be ok if she told them she was going to go easier on the students that aren't as good in the subject with the intention of not discouraging them. ..."might" being the key-word in both of these cases. She make either of these statements. It just comes down to the fact that she grades according to the person and not the quality of the work, not what the person actually deserves in the class. I will admit that the work carries some weight, but, if you had seen what I have, you would wonder just now much the quality of work actually matters in her classes. Also, how great of a teacher can she be if, in all the years she has taught AP English, not one of her students has passed the AP test? I'm doing well in my U of M Honors Great Books class, but yet Vanessa, who is quite possibly a better writer and analyzer/understander of literature than I am, was not able to pass the AP English test with Parsell as her teacher.

I'm just laying out how I feel. I realize that it doesn't affect me anymore, but it still affects my friends and it still bothers me that this can continue to take place. I would rather have had the organization not pick my old high school than have the high school get national attention with an emphasis on Parsell.