I usually do not read emails from my son’s school. If someone sneezed at school, they will send an email about it and I really don’t have the time to go through reading apprx three emails a day from the school. I read this particular email as it was sent to his father and me and his father forwarded it to me for added measure..
And I found this gem, including the italics and underline..
Unfortunately, your son has received a score <75% on one of the maths diagnostic tests held so far which places him at risk of not achieving at a standard of 4 or greater this term.
I have never been this pissed..
The first question that came to my mind was
So what? My son got less that 75% marks on one of the diagnostic test, but the earth is still revolving around the sun.. The sun is still rising from the east every morning.. I wanted to tell the teacher that the world really hasn’t ended..
So what if he didn’t achieve the standard of 4? In life you win some, you lose some. But life still goes on..
My children are lucky that they have me for a mother.. But imagine, if a typical pushy parent received a mail like this from the school teacher.. imagine the grief the child would have to go through..
In the evening when my son came back home, I asked him what happened with the diagnostic test.. and he told me..
There were 5 questions, the first one with most marks was right after the information for the student part in the first page and my son didn’t see it.. and obviously that affected the score.. He let the teacher know about the mistake as soon as he realized his mistake.
I wish the teachers would stop making education all about perfect score and the highest grade.. In the grand scheme of life, no one really bothers what marks you got a for a test..
Truth be told, these sentinels of “scores” might never comprehend the grand scheme of things.
Benu::)