Failure is an option.

If you take away the ability to fail, you take away the ability to truly succeed. Failure can be a gift-really it can. Your child can fail my class-really they can! I am fed up with the "push the child through no matter what" philosophy. If a student who knows what they should be doing, doesn't do it, they fail-end of story. I will not artificially raise a grade. Do I care that it will make them ineligible from competing in band, sports, or UIL? Only marginally, and not enough to make me change my mind. If a student is trying and struggling to comprehend, sick, having family issues, etc, these are all special circumstances. But the majority of what I see in my classroom is outright laziness!! If I give you 20 minutes to work on your assignment and you play on your phone/sleep/talk, and then not have it done the next day, guess what? You fail. I care deeply about my students and their futures. I care enough to make them work for their grade, I care enough to let them fail. Because I truly want them to succeed! College is not easy. Life is not easy. We are doing a huge disservice to our students by not making them accountable for their actions. I'm sorry (not sorry) you're sitting in summer school and your family went on vacation without you, but you know...a few weeks of summer school is not a lot to ask for when you failed to work for NINE MONTHS. As a parent, I want my daughter's future teachers to push her. Remi may end up being of average, above average, or even below average intelligence. Nonetheless, she will work to the best of her ability. She will know that school CAN be fun, but it is not the teacher's job to put on a dog and pony show for each class period. Sometimes you will have to come in and gasp......read silently the WHOLE period. Why? Because I'm mean and want to catch up on my grading? Maybe. But mostly because reading is skill that if I don't make you practice in front of me, you won't do it on your own. And if you do, it will look like this "Hey, whts up. Can u come to my house l8er?" And until they start writing books in text language (in which case I will promptly resign) you are going to have to know how to read. And guess what? You're going to write a lot in my class too. You don't like writing? Too bad. Do it anyway. I tell my kids that I don't teach English, I teach students. And I will teach you how to work hard, be a responsible citizen, and hopefully a little English along the way. I am scared of all the safeguards our society has in place for kids. Both the physical and the imagined ones. I don't always hold Remi's hand on bumpy paths, I let her stumble occasionally. I give her space to work on things she's not good at. I will probably be the parent that doesn't ever use training wheels, that throws my kid into the deep end of the pool. It's all about calculated risks. I will give her what she needs to be successful and then let her put in the work. I give my students what they need to be successful, and then I give it to them again, and again, and again. But I will NOT put in the work for them. If you want your kid to be educated, loved, and respected, send them to me. If you want them to be coddled, passed through the system, and instantly successful at everything they do, please keep them at home.