It IS desperately unfair, and I marvel at the thoughtlessness of it. It inspires contempt for those teachers who hand out such assignments. It is as if they are trying to make children laboring under some difficulty suffer even more. Are they really so stupid that they cannot tell that such assignments are ludicrously difficult for an unaided student?
It is great that you make that time at the end of the day. One thing I wish I could do (if I were dictator, you understand) is expand school hours for children who need a refuge, provide tutoring for their homework, and provide constructive activities when they have finished. I think that is the only chance to counterbalance the chaos in some of these kids lives, especially in the inner city. Heck, I knew a student, a very nice, bright boy, whose father had run off with a younger woman, creating a messy divorce situation. His mother, of course, was pretty much a wreck, and their finances were such that they moved into a modest house in a nice neighborhood with grandma. There were two older sisters, and they were upset enough to fight a lot, and pick on him. Anyway, he was helping me with a fundraiser for the chorus, and we were chatting, and I was amazed to find that he commonly failed a couple of classes a semester. As far as I could tell, it was just because of the disorder that engulfed him....... |
