You are advised to familiarize yourself with the details of the grading system before reading this.

You will need familiarity with L, 100% rule, 150% rule, [S] tests, repeatable tests and quizzes.

The rules and strategies which govern this course are such that the student is rarely placed in a confrontation with the teacher. Confrontations in the classroom between teacher and student usually stem from one of the following circumstances:

1. The student missed an exam, whether rightly or wrongly, and tries to convince the teacher that another test or retest should be given. Is the excuse valid? Is the absence excused? Is the parent covering for the student thereby putting the student at an unfair advantage relative to his peers?

In this course, these questions are irrelevant. All students are free to miss tests and to take numerous retests (on their own time). These confrontations do not exist here. In terms of grades, students with excused and unexcused absences are treated identically. A sharp distinction is maintained between grades and discipline. If the school chooses to discipline a student for an unexcused absence according to school policy, this is a response to a disciplinary problem and is entirely separated, in this classroom, from the student’s scholastic record.

There are several state departments of education which mandate this separation, for example, New York and Iowa. No state department of education, to our knowledge, publicly disputes this separation, although most, sadly, remain silent about the situation or leave it to the local school boards to set up their own rules. We believe in this principle of the separation of discipline problems from grades and our program rules reflect this.

2. The student turns in a paper late, perhaps even after other students’ papers have been returned. The student may well have a valid reason for being unable to submit the work on time. It is unlikely, however, that the teacher will be able to determine the validity of the student’s excuse, especially if there is the possibility that a parent may be covering for the student or may even be responsible for the lateness of the assignment. This is a natural setting for a confrontation. The student who is not believed is likely to be indignant, even if lying. After all, why should the teacher assume I am lying, even if, in this particular special case, I am?

In this course, there is no occasion in which it will do the student any good, or any harm for that matter, by requesting special treatment regarding an assignment which is submitted late. All students, regardless of the circumstances, have the right to submit assignments late and all follow the same rules to insure that their grades on these assignments are appropriate. Every excuse is treated as if it is undoubtedly correct, however the rules for an L make just as much sense for an excused absence as for an unexcused one and are uniformly employed to all circumstances without modification. None of the rules are punitive and none result in the student’s grade being lowered if the student understands and can apply the principles involved in the assignment.

3. As most parents will confirm, many teenagers have a tendency to resist authority or at least to resent it. This sets up a natural confrontation between such a student and the classroom authority figure, the teacher. Some students convey this attitude openly and immediately; others carry it with them in secret, but react just as negatively. Still others are quite amiable most of the time, but immediately following a confrontation at home, arrive in school ready to replace the misunderstanding parent with the unsuspecting teacher. It is the nature of the teenager to be more self-reliant than most parents realize, and less self-reliant than most teenagers realize. The confrontations, then, are probably inevitable.

In this course, it makes little or no sense for the teacher to assume the role of authority figure, enforcer, disciplinarian, etc. The teacher is simply a colleague who is attempting to help all of the students meet their individual goals. Regarding subject matter, the teacher does not act in the role of high priest since “truth” is de-emphasized and process is emphasized. With lecturing minimized, the teacher is not the main source of information (unless the student recognizes that the teacher wrote the course) and so, the teacher is one step further removed from authority. It is possible that a student may disagree with a grade, in which case the teacher and student should discuss the basis for the disagreement. If the teacher really listens to the student, is willing to adjust the grade, if appropriate, the student is unlikely to reject the teacher’s explanation for why the student did not get credit. Since so few teachers really listen to their students, from the student’s perspective, any teacher who does really listen will be viewed with respect.

Credit, in this class, is never taken away from the student. An assignment which has not yet been started earns no credit. The role of the teacher is to read through the assignment and add credit to the original zero. The teacher, then, never takes anything away from the student, although the teacher may add on less because items are missing or wrong. This distinction may, at first, appear simply a matter of semantics. Many teachers who have not recently taken tests themselves, may not appreciate the importance of this distinction in dealing with students. Explaining to a student that “I was unable to give you credit for this idea because it wasn’t here” has an entirely different feel than, “I deducted so many points because you omitted such and such.” It makes no sense for a friend or colleague to deduct anything. It does make sense for the teacher to give the student credit for whatever is deserved.

Since the classroom is student-centered and not teacher-centered, as it must be with minimal lecturing, the teacher blends into the class almost seamlessly and is, in this regard as well, less likely to be viewed as an authority figure. We have a policy of not speaking to the class at the beginning of each period in order to maintain this atmosphere. Students are expected to come in and begin to work. If the teacher opens each class, the students will sit around and wait to be told what to do. We find that once students understand the nature of the class, after just a couple of weeks, they usually begin to work before the bell has rung. After all it makes sense. They have a lot of work to do and are empowered to get high grades if they do it.

4. What about the student who does not begin to work? Surely now, the teacher must be the enforcer. Yes, but not in an offensive way. The teacher is likely to begin by saying, “I know that you want to do well yet you’re not working. Is anything wrong? Can I help?” If the attitude persists, “I realize that you’re not in the mood to work today. Do you want to make up this period some other time?” And later, “I can’t allow you to sit here and do nothing because you are becoming a distraction and interfering with the scholarly atmosphere which is so important for other students in the classroom. What do you want to do?” This is not just being polite. The student has forgotten, or perhaps he never knew, that the class is for the student and a student who is not doing the course makes no sense. Why be in the course? If the attitude persists, this is exactly the next direction we pursue. “Perhaps you should be in a music class, learning how to play the bassoon. I mean, I like having you in chemistry. But I like you enough so that I am distressed to see you wasting your time and your education. You could be a bassoon player by the end of the quarter and you could take chemistry next year!” With some students, this is the most important series of conversations the teacher may have all year. If the student’s attitude is adjusted reasonably to fit the circumstances, the student is likely to devour the subject matter with relative ease. I have a cartoon from the New Yorker which I cherish in this regard. It shows Central Park with about a dozen couples in sweat suits jogging through the park. There is one elderly couple walking slowly on the sidewalk and a police car has apparently just pulled up beside them. The policeman inside says to the lone couple who is walking slowly, “Is anything wrong?” I keep this with me at all times and frequently whip it out, show it to the non-functioning student or lab team and ask, “Is anything wrong?” Students who see me approaching with my cartoon will often say, “O.K., we’re getting to work” even before I have arrived. The exchange is, of course, humorous, playful, friendly, and effective.

5. A major concern in the chemistry lab is safety and issues of safety are a likely source of confrontation. However they are usually easily handled outside the classroom in a non-confrontational manner. “Of course, I’d like to have you in the class, but I cannot risk the health and well being of the students in the classroom, you included. Do you realize that your actions were potentially dangerous? Do you know why you would act that way? You need to understand that my first consideration must be the safety of the class. No matter how much I like you, I have to protect you and others from possible injury.” I did have one student several years ago who finished the fourth quarter of the class in the library and came in to take exams. It was not a great situation, but we parted friends and had a mutual respect for each other. At no time was anything said to the other students in the class, although they probably were informed. The point is that nice people can sometimes be dangerous and the student who needs to be disciplined does not have to be punished. The student may, logically, have to be removed from the classroom, but this is no reason to dislike the student. We believe that punishment and confrontation have no place in the communication.

6. When students find themselves in a competitive atmosphere, confrontation is much more likely to occur. Some students thrive on competition and create their own academic games… “I have to get a higher grade than …”. This is probably a healthy attitude for this student, so long as the competition is initiated by the student. Competition which is thrust upon the student by the teacher is, we believe, usually unhealthy. A student whose grade is not raised because another student did well on a test does not promote a healthy classroom attitude, at least within the context of this program. We make sure not to compare students, nor to tie one student’s success to another’s failure. As soon as teacher initiated competition is introduced (we do not mean the playing of classroom team games, mostly for fun) confrontation is sure to follow.

The role of the teacher in this setting is certainly more enjoyable than in a conventional setting. The absence of teacher-student confrontations provides a more relaxed setting for learning. The teacher is no longer an authority figure but a colleague, and perhaps a role model, whose principal function is simply to help the student succeed.

What is, perhaps most interesting, is that once one adopts the attitude that the student is always right, one is likely to wind up believing that the student is always right. Our students are involved in so many activities. Many have serious problems outside the classroom. Many have weaknesses of character, at least so we might judge from the perspective of our own circumstances, which are exacerbated by classroom confrontation. Once the element of confrontation is removed, students can be seen in a very positive light. Some are flourishing. Some have just learned how to survive. Some have not. Without confrontation, the teacher is free to be of help to each of these.

In this course, the role of the teacher is to open the student’s mind, to crawl in there and probe with questions, to try to open new pathways and better oil other ones. The teacher has no inalienable right to be crawling about in the student’s mind. Many students have learned to be defensive and are reluctant to allow anyone, certainly the teacher, in. That is, of course, the student’s right. However, it is the ultimate joy of teaching to be allowed such an intimacy. The classroom atmosphere promoted in this course, we believe, maximizes the probability that the teacher can experience such joy and can make a significant impact on the lives of students. However one sarcastic comment, innocently and casually tossed out by the teacher, and that mind may well be closed to that teacher for the remainder of the course. Humor, in the form of sarcasm, which may be effective in other classroom settings, is absolutely banned from this one.

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