Time to flip the script; I'm grading the school

by Mike Fauls

The end of the school year is coming and to all of the students (especially this year’s seniors) it means freedom. No books, no homework, no teachers and their rules…it sounds really nice. But before all of this happens we have to face the dreaded exams. And if we fail both the exam and the class…well, that isn’t what any of us want. As they give us our grades for the year, I think it’s fair that I get a chance to grade them on a few things. Pittsford, you will be graded on five levels: Teachers, Policies, Enforcement, Safety, and The Ability to Listen to Your Students.

Teachers: Pittsford you have a solid set of teachers here, with that said DON’T GET RID OF THEM!!! KEEP THEM HERE!!! It would be a massive mistake to screw with a formula that works great. Pittsford, most of your teachers get A’s all around. I mean, let’s face it--they relate to the students and seem to honestly care about what’s happening and how they can help. Whether it’s by making some sort of personal sacrifice or talking about how you played the part of defender for a young woman, they teach both morals and lessons of courage, honor, and self-respect in their own unique ways.

Policies: Guys, your policies need work. Some of them are enforced to the extent of pure ludicrousness. Like the T-shirt thing; some of the t-shirts that you guys catch are genuinely bad, so good job on that. But others that mean absolutely nothing at all? Come on, people, work with us. iPod’s are another chink in the school’s policy armor. Some teachers allow them in their classes while doing work; others look at them as if they are evil little demons that will suck your soul out of through your ears. Pittsford, you get a C in your policy department.

Enforcement: This could go hand-in-hand with the policies, but I feel that this covers all general rules as well. And you know what? You guys do all right in this area, you stick to the basics, kid gets a warning, and if he doesn’t knock it off he gets punished to the next degree. But that’s as far as consistency goes. You don’t really know what to expect from class to class as far as enforcement goes. I know teachers that let their kids go crazy basically, and yeah that’s pretty awesome from a student’s point of view, but it doesn’t give us a floor to stand on. It just kinda pulls the rug out from under our feet every hour. Pittsford, I give you a solid C- in this category; if you improve the enforcement of the policies, then the policies could definitely go up, and vice versa.

Safety: I think that this goes to show how good of a place Pittsford really is at its core. Pittsford, you are a safe school. Between your practice drills and assemblies, you do your best to prepare and warn your students. Unfortunately, you have some major building problems, like the wall in the gym. Congratulations Pittsford, you get an A-.

The ability to listen to your students: This is your Achille’s heel though; you do not listen to your students’ opinions. Take this article, for instance. You might read it and you might not. What is guaranteed, though, is that most of you, if not all, will simply ignore this because I am a student and I don’t really know what I’m talking about because I’m just a young whipper-snapper. Sorry guys, but you drop the ball in this area. Pittsford, you get a D in this area. You just don’t listen all that much. A really nice thing that could fix this is even if you didn’t act on our opinions, let us know that you at least heard us. Bring us into the office, or even just at lunch, walk up to us and tell us that you didn’t think it was a great idea and tell us why. This is what bugs most students, we hear about certain things like the need to cut things out and paste other things in their spot, but tell us why that’s happening so that our imagination doesn’t go crazy.