Some students don’t deserve to graduate

The following column was first published in 2015, before the pandemic and quarantine.

Dear Annie: Graduation is coming up, and I don’t know what to do. You see, most of the seniors aren’t qualified to graduate at all. Some of them have been truant for half of the years they were here.

At least 15 seniors were absent from class for their entire senior year, and at least 20 per cent lack grade-level reading and writing skills. For some, college will be impossible.

Every year, we have “alumni” who return to school because they either graduated without necessary credentials or flunked out of college and need academic help.

I never give passing grades to students who don’t show up to class, but if they perform some token service, the school graduates them anyway.

Should I go to this year’s graduation ceremony? I haven’t gone in two years, and when asked, I say why.

Sometimes I worry that I appear unkind, because this is a low-income, troubled neighbourhood and high school graduation means a lot to these families.

I just don’t like what I see as a deception because either the parents haven’t made sure their kids go to school, or the school lies to the kids and tells them everything is fine. What do you suggest?

Teacher Dear Teacher: There is only so much you can do, and you are already doing it. We understand that you don’t feel it is fair for students to graduate when they haven’t done the work, shown up for class or achieved the required standards.

You are already giving these students flunking grades. But unless the other teachers and the school administration are willing to hold them back, they will graduate anyway. And your school is not the only one that operates in this fashion.

While it serves no purpose for parents or kids to believe graduation will happen whether or not it’s deserved, for some, the humiliation of not graduating doesn’t spur them to achieve more. It makes them give up.

Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish as an educator, and then seek the best way to achieve it.