HARPER’S WEEKLY APRIL 19, 1976

FLUNK THE STUDENTS

I have five years of off-and-on teaching experience at the high-school and college levels. My criterion for grading is the same one used on me during my years in a Jesuit high school and college. If a student doesn’t do 70 percent of his work, I flunk him.

My assignments are fewer, easier, and more relevant than those I remember from my high-school days. Yet, this year, after two years away from teaching, I get moans and groans from students who say I am “outta touch with the way grading’s done now.” Parents complain, pointing to my sizable allotment of Fs. Administrators confer with me, seeming to dread facing parents who will devour them for little Richard’s failure’s sake.

“Don’t you give credit for trying?” everybody asks.

“Would you pay a contractor who nails down only half of the bracing that supports your house over some scenic precipice?”

Reading, English, math, and SAT scores tumble throughout the state and nation, but how many teachers reflect that by flunking their students? When I hear of teachers demanding a respectable Standard, I also hear of administrators, pressured from the community, pushing teachers to pass the nonperformers.

America doesn’t need another five-cent cigar—there’s enough smoking going on. She doesn’t need another standardized achievement test either. She needs honest, clear, and higher standards. Dwayne Hunn

Glendora, Calif.