Dear Teachers…

Preamble:

This is a declaration of independence. Much like the old English monarchy, the administration in the school is ruling too harshly. Every student has rightfully deserved an A and the teachers are denying us of our earned right. 

Last year’s remote learning guaranteed us a “C” in every class, while this year the dictatorship, known as Glenoak’s administration, decided that we would have to work for our grade.

I have done three out of my six assignments this year. That is three times more than the amount of remote work I did over the course of last year’s quarantine, yet I have “Fs” in all my classes. I am not sure why that is. I am certainly working harder and it seems my hard work is going unnoticed.

With most students’ grades taking a drastic drop, including myself, (straight As to straight Fs) I feel teachers should be more lenient. 

The online learning environment has plagued me with a disease far worse than the Big Rona. I now have severe procrastination, a 2.5 GPA, and a grounding on my phone that will last much longer than this pandemic.

I feel I speak for the students when I say we have earned.. no, deserve a 50 percent grade raise in all classes. Last year’s online gave us all a guaranteed “C” while doing NOTHING. While this year I have done nothing and I have “Fs”.

This new policy for grading is outrageous. 

List of Clauses

-We, the students, have been treated unfairly and have been forced into horrendously unfair and harsh work. That has taken away from my quarantine sleep time.

-We, the students, believe we should not have to work and should be granted at least a passing grade for all the hardship we have had to undergo.

-We, the students, demand a 50 percent grade raise in all our classes for the first nine weeks assuming we do not already have a passing grade.

-We, the students, demand a more lenient extension of due dates, to accommodate our procrastination.

-We, the students, demand that tests be abolished because with the lack of attention paid during online assignments, we students are underprepared for any summative assignments that should normally be expected of us.

-We, the students, demand all assignments that have an “M”, beside them in the grade book become null and void and no longer affect our grade.

Conclusion

We the students, as reasonable human beings, cannot be expected to undergo such extreme changes throughout our school year. 

Last year, we went from getting an easy “C” online, to being forced to work long, grueling hours during the online portion of this school year. 

We the students cannot be expected to take this treachery laid out by the administration while sitting down at desks watching our grades decline. 

We must rise up against the administration instead of taking action to change our grades, or putting in the work to do our assignments. 

We must instead demand these changes of a 50 percent grade raise so we may all achieve the same level of success we achieved last year during quarantine while doing nothing.

So remember students: If your grades are slippin’, it’s because the administration is trippin’. Ergo we must declare separation from the administration. 

Zachary Gemma