More Stupidity

Some kids have asked me for extra credit assignments. My philosophy on extra credit is exactly how it sounds: “EXTRA” credit. It’s not make-up work, yet the students think it is. They’re having a hard time distinguishing between the two. So, this student—who is getting an F in class—asked me if there is any more extra credit that he can do to make bring up his grade.

“No. You just have to do you all your assignments from now on,” I said.

He asked me, “How come I’m still getting an F? I did the first extra credit assignment.”

This is where I paused and gave him “the look.” You know “the look” when parents or teachers give to their kids because they don’t want to say something demeaning or cruel as a reply? It’s like that time when some kid said, “Why don’t they just let us graduate?” I wanted to say, “Because high school doesn’t graduate losers.” Only this time, I wanted to say, “Hello! Extra credit doesn’t mean anything when you don’t do other assignments. Duh!”

Where’s the common sense? Sure, I gave one extra credit assignment, but that was only worth twenty points. Like that’s going to bring up his grade after he’s missed four other assignments that was worth sixty points!

And I’m supposed to teach higher-level analytical thinking?