Bel Kaufman: Up The Down Staircase

Chas. H. Robbins

1. On the pro side marks are good to the teacher. In showing how much the pupil listens to her.

2. On the con side marks are bad to the pupil. If he doesn't do so good on a test.

Teenager

Due to marks you can't not cheat.

Constant Cheater

Teachers too stingy with the marks and unfair in dishing them out. Questions are too prejudice and tests are too hard.

Edward Williams, Esq.

Do away with them, after all we can get along in our social life without marks.

Linda Rosen

Marks are important because for colleges or jobs they want your average and the average for the subject is made up of marks and the average for the term is made up of the average of the different subjects and the average for all terms is what they want.

Crammer

E.W. was copying from F.A. in French, also L.M. and L.R. And others!

Guess Who

Sometimes I do my homework and the teacher doesn't even mark it or I recite in class and it doesn't count, it's a waste of my time. Like when I studied the wrong thing.

A True Pupil

Why can't they scatter exams insted of making us study severall subjects the same night, it makes no sence?

Failing

I don't think talking out or horsing around should be avaraged in with the marks. A teacher may hate you, after all he's human, Ha-ha! and he might give you a zero in conduct. One zero for talking can pull down the whole average! But it doesn't matter anyhow, everybody gets promoted. Sooner or later!

Lou Martin

I wrote the same identical book report for two different English teachers I had last term. One gave me 91 and the other 72 on the same identical paper. Go figure it out!

I think class discussion should be counted and not tests because you can say what you really think and not what they want you to say.

Carole Blanca

Marks encourage us to cheat though I personally don't.

Honest Abe

You either pass or fail, no two ways about it.

Zero

Best marks go to cheaters and memorizers. Marks depend on memorizing and not on real knowledge. When you cram into your head for a test you may get a high mark but forget it the next day. That's not an education. I suggest just Good and Bad at the end of the term on report cards. Or maybe nothing.

Frank Allen

The reason my marks are low is because teachers call on me the one time I'm unprepaired and never all the times I am.

Disgusted

Exams show more the paper and not the individual.

Teachers give tests for spite and to get even. Or just to keep the class quiet. (This is the last time I'm writting to answer you!)

Marks should be based on class work and not on tests when the nerves take over. When talking in class (English) and the teacher listens to me I feel more courage to say it.

Jose Rodriguez

I use only 10% or less of what I study. It's a waist.

Dropout

Cheat is Teach backwards! ! !

Doodlebug

TO: ALL TEACHERS

FROM: JAMES J. MCHABE, ADM. ASST.

PLEASE PLOT AND HAND IN THE MEDIAN PERCENTILE CURVE BASED ON THE MIDTERM MARKS IN EACH OF YOUR CLASSES. IF A CLASS CURVE FALLS BELOW THE PERCENTILE OF FAILURES ALLOTTED TO IT, THE EFFICACY OF THE TEACHER MUST BE QUESTIONED. TEACHERS WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF PASSING STUDENTS ARE TO BE COMMENDED.

JJ McH

Wed., Nov. 25

Dear Ellen,

It looks as if I might be fired from the school system—because I failed to provide a lavatory escort for Joe Ferone.

If this doesn't make sense, it's because it doesn't; but I’ll start at the beginning. It was during Midterm Exams this morning. Midterms are really final exams, but they're given in November, with high pomp and protocol. Books piled in front of the room, seats in alternate rows, kids: "Can we copy?" "What's the answer to question 2?" "It's not fair! We never had this!" "How we supposed to answer this?" Confusion about money to be collected for Thanksgiving baskets; confusion about Midterm exam envelopes delivered to the wrong room; confusion about proctoring assignments; and the usual confusion about bells. Finally silence, except for the scratching of pens and shuffling of feet.

Suddenly—a problem. Ferone has to leave the room. I escort him to the door—but there is no hall proctor in sight—and he is not supposed to go unescorted. What to do? His need is urgent. We stand in the doorway for a moment, testing each other with our eyes. The situation is fraught. This may be my chance to win his trust at last. I whisper—in order not to disturb the others—my permission for him to go alone. It is understood that he is honor-bound not to use the lavatory for any but legitimate purposes; not as a reference room, not to look up any answers that may be secreted on his person, not even for a quick smoke. He goes, and I return to my observation perch at the back of the room (so that the kids can't see whom I am watching: a tip from Admiral Ass!). A few minutes later, the Admiral himself appears in the doorway, white with rage, Ferone at his side. Clash of swords; two enemies face to face, on either side of Ferone; the showdown—but sotto-voce, for we have an audience.

McH: What is the meaning of this?

I: Of what?

McH: You let him out of the room unescorted?

I: He had to go

McH: Unescorted?

I: There was no hall proctor.

McH: You should have waited for one.

I: The situation did not warrant waiting.

McH: Do you realize his exam paper may be invalidated?

I: Why?

McH: He may have been looking up answers!

I: I don't think so. He told me he wouldn't.

McH: He told you?

I: Yes.

McH: And you believed him?

I: I believe him.

McH: Go back to your seat, young man. Miss Barrett, this is not the time and place to explain to you the gravity of your position. You had explicit instructions; you disobeyed them. You'll hear from me later. In the meantime, you will please put his paper aside when he is finished. The outcome of his examination will have a direct bearing on you. You understand that?

I: I think so.

McH: The second girl in the third row—eyes on your paper!

Exit the Admiral.

Ferone and I look at each other. His face is impassive. Will he fail the exam to vindicate me? He is very bright; he has been an F student only because he chose to be.

Suddenly he has become a moral issue by which I stand or fall. The incident of the lavatory has brought into focus my values against McHabe's—everything I believe in as opposed to all that is petty, regimented and rote in the school system; all that degrades the dignity of my profession, and consequently, of my pupils; my desire to teach well, as opposed to bureaucracy, trivia and waste.