Monday, May 30, 2011

The Late Work Policy

An Essay from a Student's Point of View


            As a seventh grade student in the United States, I’ve learned that America holds these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights.  I never bothered to look up what inalienable means, but I have a few ideas.  I think this idea has to do with turning in late work to my teacher.  It means if I’m not ‘in’ school and I have an ‘ail-ment’ or if I’m ‘ill’ that I will be ‘able’ to turn ‘in’ the work when I return. 
            Luckily for me, I don’t have to be actually ill to reap the benefits of this, I just have to miss school and have my mom call me in sick or write a note.  Thank goodness because the assignment I had due for History class was due this past Friday and I hadn’t even started it.  I knew about it for three months, but I didn’t see any reason to start it until the week before it’s due.  Unfortunately, this project was HUGE!  I didn’t have nearly enough time to complete it in the time I left myself.  I would have to miss Friday, the day it was due, to be able to get it in on time. 
            That was last week, and I still hadn’t finished it on Monday, so I was ‘ill’ that day as well.  That’s what the note said.  When I came back, the stupid teacher wouldn’t accept my assignment on Tuesday when it was really due!  My mom had been at work and thought I was really sick, so she was livid!  Thank goodness.  She called the principal of my school and complained to him.  She stated that she understood that a teacher couldn’t do this if her son was sick.  And I was.  That’s what the note said. 
            The principal folded.  He didn’t want to have to fight against my mom.  She could get pretty loud and mean when she has to and she told him that she knows people.  He didn’t want to deal with that I’m sure.  He made my stupid teacher let me turn it in late on time for full credit.  That showed him!  Like he can make me do work and turn it in when he wants!  The world doesn’t work that way.  Hadn’t he ever heard that I had inalienable rights?  Duh.
            The teacher was pretty mad about the whole situation.  I told my mom that when I got my project back with a C on it.  I told her I think he graded me differently than the other students because he considered mine late.  That just wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t going to fly with my mom. 
            Another call and some yelling to the principal and my mom convinced him to let another teacher grade it.  Guess what!  When they graded it, I got a B.  My teacher was trying to hold a grudge against me.  I would have failed his class if I didn’t turn in my project. He just wanted me to fail.  He thinks just because I sleep in his class and do next to no work, that I should fail.  I should really show him that thing that says I have those inalienable rights.  I wished I remember what thing said that.  He should have taught me about that in class instead of wasting my time making me do that project on the Declaration of Independence.  Who reads that garbage anyway?  That teacher was a jerk.  I was sick after all.  That’s what the note said.

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