Why I need to fail you in class

truly help him or her perform better in school, but overworking your teachers will also reduce the latter’s performance in teaching.

In some schools, when a student fails a subject, the school opts to give an incomplete (INC) grade to them, similar to college.

Some teachers also opt to pass all students, regardless if their scores are far from passing because giving remedial classes are bothersome and that they are not even paid nor incentivized whenever they have to do so.

Even the mere fact that teachers are not paid in their remedial classes sends a message that it is the fault of the educators when their students fail in class, and so, you have to work extra for your failure— that shouldn’t be the case.

I’m not saying that some students or the ‘weakest ones’ will and must fail and there is nothing more to do about it. This assumption is called the ‘Bell Curve Mentality’ where teachers think that there would always be poor performing ones who will not pass your class.

As a matter of fact, the main goal of education is to reform all who ‘cannot’ into ‘can’.

But even if they still cannot do so, teachers are not to be blamed entirely.

My previous article, Why I need to fail you in class, published on February this year, got more than 700 shares and for me, that is already an overwhelming outcome. Indeed, some teachers share the sentiment of being blamed a student’s lapses.

Before I end this column, I would like to first share that I was not that much of a good student back in my days too.

I flunked college mathematics twice, got a few 3.0’s, and dropped out of a class too.

I have my own complaints towards my teachers, but I have my own problems too.

I may not have been a very smart nor responsible student, but it wasn’t entirely my teachers’ fault.

Assuming that a student is bound to fail in a class is not right, but it is also unfair to pressure the teachers to make all of his or her students go to the next level without fail—and then point fingers at him or her if he/she can’t force them to learn.