Written by Paige Coleman and Elsa Williams
The years of COVID and quarantine caught the world off guard. With this sudden shift for everyone on the planet, many organizations have had to drastically change their practices. Schools especially were impacted.
Online classes were put in place in lieu of in-person classes, and little to no work needed to be put in in order to pass. It was virtually impossible to fail, as your grade could only go up. Tests were a breeze. With no teacher looming over you, cheating on tests was laughably easy. Zoom calls became nap time, as just being in the call meant you were present.
But these years of no learning came at a price. When students came back from school, nobody was ready to do work again. So, they made school easier. The main accommodation that was made by the Sac City Unified School District, which was applied at McClatchy, was giving half credit for missing assignments. This rule was put in place to ease us back into the swing of things, but two years later, it’s still in place. It may not seem all that bad, giving students an easier time at school, but in the end, what is this teaching us?
Why do your work when you’ll still get credit? This whole rule is teaching students that work isn’t important. Plus, students who work hard for good grades can be out-competed by other students who took a three-day credit recovery course. How disheartening is that? Failing class (if you can) isn’t even a bad thing anymore. Credit recovery classes are way too easy, and most can be done in a number of days, if not hours. Plus, with them being all online, cheating is as easy as ever.
And college isn’t even close to as forgiving. College will prove to be a huge shock to most. Harder, more grueling classes will be even harder with us not being used to completing our work. College is also where grades really matter. Almost your whole career (depending on what you want to do) is reliant on your grades.
Both McClatchy and the district are not preparing us for the real world. Procrastinating has consequences that we need to teach now rather than later. I believe that 50% on missing work should be removed, and the normal, 0% should be given instead.