Teacher deserves an A

Criticism of an Edmonton public high school teacher who gave students zeros for failing to hand in their assignments doesn’t add up in our books.

Lynden Dorval has been suspended and expects to be fired for failing to mark missing assignments “not completed,” as required under the school district’s grading and reporting practices.

We think Dorval, a physics teacher with 35 years experience, is just the kind of educator we need in our classrooms. Rather than coddling students and pretending it’s acceptable not to hand in assignments, Dorval is sending a powerful message — one that will help young people today and throughout their lives.

Education is a partnership among teachers, students and parents. If students won’t do their part — which includes handing in assignments as required — then they deserve a zero. Dorval is simply teaching students that there are consequences.

In Dorval’s classes, students who didn’t turn in assignments received a printout of their marks showing them how a zero would impact their overall grade.

Usually, the strategy spurred students to complete the work, he said, or helped alert parents to bad study habits of their child.

“To me, this is just not working,” Dorval, 61, said of the no- zero policy the school introduced about 18 months ago. “This is just a way of inflating marks and it’s not benefiting the students … It’s a way of pushing kids through and making the stats look good, but at what cost?”

At what cost, indeed. We award Dorval an A.

The Edmonton Public School Board deserves a zero.