terrapinsanity.com

Today’s news from Montgomery County Public Schools is that next year they won’t penalize (academically) students who rack up unexcused absences from classes. (Today a sufficient number of cuts will result in a failure of the course.)

This news is just swell (not) for College Park, where many MCPS students already make faculty nuts with their expectation of consideration. You see, the county also has a forgiveness policy for students – they can always get a do-over on graded material, for example, and there is always “make up” credit available.

The standard business model learned by students from this system is to never study in advance of a test, since that risks wasting effort on things you don’t need to know. Instead, take the test, tank it but then use it as a guide for what to study for your do-over. If that doesn’t work, then go bleat to the teacher and you get more credit for doing some indeterminate ‘stuff’ later.

What a big surprise when these students land in freshman classes here, where professors strive for excellence in all students, but who know students are free to fail. Final exams are, like, final and all that.

We already deal with drama and grief from students who have yet to learn that lesson in life. How much more special it will be dealing with these students when they’re taught that they need not even show up either.