[0703] Recommendation Letter
└ posted on Thursday, 23 July 2015, by Novil
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- Ye Thuza: Prof. Douglas, I’m from the neighboring town and would like to ask you if you could possibly mentor my daughter as part of a scholarship.
- Michael R. Douglas: Hmm, maybe. Do you have a recommendation letter from her current school?
- Ye Thuza: Well, I wouldn’t really describe it like that.
- Report card: Yuna is an excellent student who shows a keen interest in mathematics and science. She solves problems with a great deal of dedication and creati-
- Yuna: I only got a “B” in math because my dumb seatmate copied my answers in the last test and we both got an “F” for it!
![[0703] Recommendation Letter](/comics/2015-07-23-0703-recommendation-letter.png "[0703] Recommendation Letter")
Totally been there on the “being cheated off of and getting punished for it” thing. The worst part is… half the time the person being cheated off of honestly doesn’t realize they’re being cheated off of. (I never did). So it’s like… “Why punish me? I had no clue what was happening!”
Fluffy wrote:
Unfortunately, the answer is easy: even if it’s obvious (which is not always the case), there is no way to officially declare who is the cheater and who isn’t without pissing off the cheater’s parents (sadly, that’s the case even if the cheater confesses). So, in the interest of avoiding trouble for the teachers (in their defense, though, depending on the parent in question, “trouble” might mean “getting fired”), both are treated as if they were the cheater.
Ah yes, the completely inaccurate school report. I remember getting only the second highest grade in IT, despite being the ones showing the teachers who to use it, and another time not getting an A* in a maths due not bothering to have a folder for my “notes” aka stupid hw that you can do in your sleep and stuff you’re forced to copy down in lessons that trivially follows from what you’ve done before.
Oh dear, poor kid XD
Rex Vivat wrote:
Wow. This is stupid beyond imagination.
And what about the diligent student’s parents? Couldn’t they cause trouble too if their kid is punished without any fault?
This can come only from an out of control judicial system.
Rex Vivat wrote:
Unfortunately, the answer is easy: even if it’s obvious (which is not always the case), there is no way to officially declare who is the cheater and who isn’t without pissing off the cheater’s parents (sadly, that’s the case even if the cheater confesses). So, in the interest of avoiding trouble for the teachers (in their defense, though, depending on the parent in question, “trouble” might mean “getting fired”), both are treated as if they were the cheater.
Eh, I guess it depends on the culture. Back when I was in school there was no problem about it, and most parents would be pissed off at their cheating child, not at teachers.
Now that I think about it, what would be the name of concept that makes parents in US act that way? I mean, it seems to me really stupid to teach your children it’s fine to break law in a country where you can be jailed for jaywalking.
Just wait. She’ll hit 5th or 6th grade, realize that everybody copies homework from the back of the book, and that she already learned most of it last year… and that she could be learning something new.
Shortly thereafter grades will be low b and c range. She will ace every test, though, and use words her teachers either look up, or just mark her down for because they do not know them.
*Based upon the group of people I hung out with, all of whom aced every test, but got low grades because doing the same homework for multiple years was so painful we stopped bothering. We did look at advanced courses, but they weren’t worth anything in our area (basically, you got more homework and such a slight increase in the level of learning that it wasn’t worth it. I hear that has improved… so maybe that will save Yuna’s grades.) Yes, we also got marked off multiple times for using too large a vocabulary.
In other words, I pity poor Yuna.
Also, yes, that is exactly what happens with students in the U.S. We are given the ‘You cannot offend anyone, and anytime somebody is the person who offended is at fault regardless of the reason’ syndrome in full blast. Of course, that means that somebody is always wrong, even if they were doing the best possible thing, because somebody is offended by your very existence fairly frequently. I’d say at a rate of ~2.36 mHz.
It doesn’t make sense, especially as it is so very prone to abuse. However, what is, is what is.
@ Robert:
Never mind the absurdity of that: By doing so, you’re offending the people you hold back, and you aren’t benefiting anybody. You want to talk about what’s bad for a kid’s self-esteem? Working as hard as you can to get a C and watching the kid next to you sleep in class and get an A is bad for a kid’s self-esteem. That teaches him that hard work is no match for natural talent.
I really must protest this comic. Honestly, the idea that they teach science in American schools is patently absurd.
I just noticed that the grades follow the pattern of A, B, B, and A. Ikari Warriors reference, or ABBA reference?
I think most of the problems stem from the idea that American ideals regarding equality have been twisted from the original meaning of “equality of opportunity” into “equality of outcome”. The low have to be uplifted, even if they keep jumping off. The high have to be brought low. This concept applies whether we are talking about academics, money, or moral character.
Fortunately, I am old enough to have gotten all my schooling before the insane asylum inmates took over the education system. I’m not wealthy, but I see how wealth is publicly reviled while privately relished.
Funny, I taught in American schools for twenty-three years and if any kid in my class got caught cheating the parents would, at minimum, ground them for the rest of the month. Lot of hot air being spouted here, if you ask me. Too many people spend too much time listening to talk radio.
And Ye Thuza isn’t fooling around. Check out Michael R. Douglas on Wiki!
I was once accused of cheating by a high school Algebra teacher.
In front of the entire class.
Luckily for me, I only needed to ask a Two Part question to shut it down:
How could I have cheated?
A) I was the First person to turn in the test by a good 10 Minutes.
B) I was the Only Person with All the Correct Answers.
…
He gave me a dirty look, but he stopped right There.
.
myth buster wrote:
I agree it is a stupid practice, but then again politics is behind it. I expect nothing less from politics.
As for the other part of that, everybody has their own talents. I agree that doesn’t sound like fun, but there are benefits to both hard work and talent. Realizing your talents would be the appropriate lesson there. Simply put, there are going to be times where you can’t work hard enough at something to beat somebody with a natural talent… and times where you can. However, punishing a child for having that talent is counter productive as well, and leads to that exact situation on both ends in the case of school (one is bored, the other feels like a failure.)
Common sense is, sadly, something that does not apply to our school system. I wish I had the power to change that. Acquiring said power, however, requires a very large number of people who recognize the problem acting in coordination… and that is unlikely in a nation like the U.S. where the majority of the population rabidly supports one of two viewpoints without regard to facts, lies told to them, or what is really best.
Is it all really absurd. Yep. That’s the world we live in!
MidoriLuna wrote:
Actually, they do for a tiny little bit. Then they go back to violating the principles of science and telling the children what to think.
@ MidoriLuna:
The Professor has the is the namesake of the actor who plays Hank Pym in Ant Man in a universe he let Tony Stark create Ultron in.
@ Kevin Breslin:
Kevin Breslin wrote:
Just putting things into perspective here.
@ Kevin Breslin:
Seriously if the wife is a Catherine Beta Jones … You’ll get my point.
Give that mom the dedication award.
@ Robert:
Well, it does really suck that most vocal people either don’t recognize, refuse to recognize, or even refuse to acknowledge that the system is broken in the first place, but lacking individual power doesn’t mean you should sit back. Spend a few hours a week searching around the ‘net and local areas for education reform groups that fit your beliefs, and start trying to help them engage in diplomacy with other similar groups until you have a large enough coalition to start talking to these deniers and showing them it’s not all OK. It may be unlikely, but when people don’t try, it becomes impossible.
Also, I hope to goodness you’re voting Bernie Sanders in the presidential election.
On the comic, I really wish I ever got the chance to do something like this… Ye Thuza gets Mom of the Year award, hands down.
I’ve been there. My second-grade teacher didn’t know what the word “tine” means (a prong or sharp point, such as on a fork or antler) and she sent another student with me to the library to verify that it really was a word. I think that was the day she realized I was already smarter than her.
And yes, the rest of your comment hit home with me. I didn’t try hard in school because I didn’t need to. I was the kind of guy who could read a book and follow what the teacher was saying at the same time, so even if they pull the “ask question and then say the student’s name” trick, I could still pipe up with an answer, and it would be the right one.
@Squished Elf:
Active in groups, yes. Hoping to eventually get involved in fixing things, but it takes a ton of work.
Bernie Sanders: No. His words are great, usually, but when you look at his legislation it is the same old stuff. I consider him to be the rough equivalent of the others. If he actually followed through on what he says, and didn’t pull the same shady stuff that the parties do… but he does.
I will look for a true independent candidate.
Agreed, Ye Thuza is awesome!
Well, this brings back memories. Dear god, my grades and how easily I grasped and understood the material in class just did not seem to mesh well. I would get Cs in history despite knowing it better than the teacher and certainly more factually correct than the textbook (excuse me being pissed at a book that claimed we won the Vietnam War but backed down from our victory due to political pressure..they didn’t even mention Secretary Mcnamara, and don’t even get my started how American textbooks skim over around a thousand years, acting like nothing important happened between their generalized tale of the Roman Empire and the start of colonialism), but somehow managed to become a cum laude in Latin (my dad loved Greek mythology, and the single most important test in Latin..involved saying who was the god of what, and it’s far easier to mentally switch what name to call someone than to actually learn a language).
Some teachers, it felt like they had their hands tied behind their back and had to deal with beaurocrats and uninterested students holding them back. Other teachers felt more like grown-up bullies who want total control of their little fiefdom.
Sorry, late night working, did some catch-up reading of an old favorite web-comic, and felt in the mood to rant.
@ Fluffy:
I had this once in school, and my teacher had a somewhat fair solution: Both me and my neighbor had to go in a separate room on opposite sides…and do one task once again. Still, not technically fair, since I didn’t cheat and was unprepared…but better than an F
[…] those who can’t do, teach […]
which is aimed at a vast majority of primary/secondary school teachers.
In High School Geometry I got an F despite ace-ing every test. We had to keep a notebook of all the notes and assignments done in class. It constituted a large percentage of our grade, and my organizational skills are very lacking. My mom went to the principal and before she could plead my case he looked at my grades for the class and said “Well that’s not right. The notebook is clearly just to help the stupid kids” Then he changed my grade back to an A.
(If any of this didn’t make sense, it is because I am very sleep deprived right now.)
@ Rex Vivat:
Unfortunately I’ve been in that situation and you know what irks me the most?
The girl that copied my test got B and I got C for the SAME thing. The only reason why I’ve got lesser grade is because she wrote everything pretty and clean, while my work was full of fixes and stuff, showing that I was really working on it.
And my teacher’s excuse for giving me lesser grade was – “Next time try taking an example from (girl that cheated) and do your work RIGHT!”
Good thing is, there’s always teachers that can do justice against such asshole teachers.
NeksusCat wrote:
I hand a group of classmates in my Junior year of High School who all gave the same paper to the same teacher to see who got what grades. The range was from a D to an A but worse than that is that the teacher didn’t notice that 6 people passed in in the same paper.
And where is History/Social Studies on that report card? I know a lot of us Americans seem to either ignore or fail to learn it but that doesn’t mean all of us do!
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Aside from that, wouldn’t Yuna’s teacher realise that she wouldn’t knowingly let anyone copy off her?
It seems a little severe to give both of them an F when she’d probably be liable to murder anyone she caught copying off her!
I was for two years a boarding student at St. John’s Ravenscourt private school in Winnipeg, Canada. The two most miserable years of my life, dealing with bullying on a daily basis. I did not go back a third year, because one my mother finally realized what a hellhole it was and two, because my grades weren’t high enough for SJR. I had the third-highest grades in my class! Lying scumbags!
I once had a College professor take 20% off a Finance quiz for a question with the 100% Correct answer.
When I asked him “Why?” he pointed to a spot halfway through the formula and informed me that it was supposed to be a Division and he didn’tsee any way to get the correct answer from that point on.
When I looked at it and pointed out that I took the Reciprocal and was then able to Multiply to get the correct answer, his response was:
“I didn’t teach Reciprocals in this class.”
And, no, he wouldn’t change his mind just because I used math I learned in 6th grade on a College Exam.
…
I’m surprised her report card isn’t all A’s besides that one B in Math. She’s definitely smarter than I was at that age and I got one, MAYBE 2 B’s on my report card every semester. Most of the time I was a straight A student so I think those grades would be considered low compared to her mom’s expectations.
@ Angel Naomi:
C.f.Her true B’s are in writing, music, and art, most people who excel in the math and science skills do worse in the artistic skills. P.E. anyone who tries can get an A till around middle school.
@ MaxArt:
that’s sort of the point, both parents think theirs is the diligent one.
The mistake is blaming the teacher, the cheater, or the one cheated off of. It’s the government’s fault. We have really messed up school systems. And I’m not trying to make a point about politics or anything, I’m just saying HAVE YOU SEEN OUR SCHOOLS NOWADAYS. THEY’RE UNBELIEVABLY AWFUL. The good kids can’t excel because all the teacher’s energy is focused on the bad kids, the good teachers can’t teach the way they need to because the policies they’re expected to keep are completely unrealistic.
This is not meant as a criticism to our government. They did the best they could, I’m sure. But our schools are in a horrible state right now. They were in a horrible state twenty years ago too. The government is absolutely rubbish at this job; they’ve always been, and they aren’t going to get any better.
Jane wrote:
Not all of them.
The ones attended by the children of the Mayor and all the School Board members is Very Nice and has all sorts of thing sadly Lacking at all the Other Schools in town.
The ones attended by the kids whose parents work for a living…
.
tfw people sometimes attempt to cheat off me but they dun-goof and copy things incorrectly so they fail off their own bat
tfw teachers don’t even deduct a mark from me
@ myth buster:
*Was one of those kids who slept in classes and got almost all A’s on my test (rarely did homework). Ruining the motivation of harder working students who might have otherwise thought hard work beats talent.*
#ashamed of that.
@ Evonix:
So diligent s/he confessed to have cheated?
And anyway, the teacher should have the last word on this. The parents know nothing, the kids are just unreliable.
@ 1OldBear:
Depending on his performance on Antman, we will see if he could be played by Micheal K. Douglas
@ Not Needed:
Maybe Yuna really likes ABBA and planned to get her grades like that?
Before I start, lets just say my mom is not liked by any school.
Well, at least her seatmate knew who to copy FROM. The main reason I never cheated in school by copying is that I realized that you would also copy the incorrect answers of your target. No reason to get their score when you can naturally get a higher one yourself.