5/24/04
I just got back from my eigth grade trip to Washington D.C. as of Sunday, 5/23/04. I had a great time and i saw plenty of fun and interesting things. Now I was tired, so i asked my mom if i had to go to school tommorow. Being that I'm a straight A student, she said she didn't think it would be a problem. The next day, however, the principal of my school called, informing me that I'd be getting zeroes in all of my classes today. However, I had no tests or assignments scheduled for the day after the trip, so I wonder what will actually happen. However, i believe that their argument to be flawed for several reasons.


1. Flat-out lies

When she called, the principal of my school said that the coordinator of the trip told us there would be consequences if we didn't go to school the next day. This is a flat-out, bald-faced lie! We were told at school that we would be expected to be at school the day after, but aren't we expected to be at school everyday? And there was absolutely no mention of consequences.


2. Inconsistency

There is a person in my class who has missed 25+ days of school this year. A majority of these days were days that major projects are due. I.E. book reports, major tests, oral reports, etc. Everyone, including the principal, knows that he plays hookie. He's admitted it multiple times. Never has any action been taken against him. Now, I am a straight A student. Sometimes I get in trouble, but nothing serious. The worst thing I've ever done is forget my homework. This is the first day I've missed all quarter. Why should I be punished so severely for one day, while somone else goes unpunished for doing this for weeks?


3. Judgement on grades alone

Everyone should be familiar with the elementary school grading system. Students take tests and do assignments. They then receive a grade on them based on the quality and correctness of them. These grades are then averaged into one final grade. Nowhere on the elementry school level does attendance come into the equation. Altering a student's grade on the college level based on attendance is acceptable-that would invole an adult, who should be responsible. But for someone to alter people's grades on such a large scale, on the elementary level, is just wrong.


Maybe I'm just overreacting; I don't even know how this will affect my grade yet. But for the reasons stated above, I believe that no action that would alter anyone's grades should be taken. As soon as I know what will happen I will post it here.


5/25/04
Well it seems that the principal just overreacted. The teachers I talked to said they would never give a student zeroes for something so trivial. Also, it seems that the ol' principal took a little bit of heat from the parents. Mostly they complained that what she said would be done was against school policy, that the parent had to make the decision for the child, etc. Seeing how this whole thing spawned from my trip to D.C., I figured I'd give a brief synopsis of the trip.


I'm just going to list the places I went to, and possibly I'll include some anecdotes, too. I went to (in no particular order) Mt. Vernon, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the FDR memorial, the Marine Corp Memorial, AKA the Iwo Jima memorial, Union Station, the Ronald Reagan Center, the Holocaust Museum (but I only saw the juvenile part), the Natural History, Air and Space, and American History branches of the Smithsonian, Ford's Theater, the Capital, the Supreme Court, and I think that's it. I took a bucnh of digital pictures, but I'm too lazy to upload them right now. Perhaps tommorow.