After some of the things I've heard lately, I'm surprised we're not running around checking IDs all day.
While these two campus conversations are completely unrelated, they work off of the same theme of trust. The first deals with the English department's grading sub--the one they share around the department to get the writing graded. It seems that an edict was given that the grading sub was not to be used on Mondays and Fridays, presumably to avoid anyone using it for a three day weekend (I won't bore you with the particulars--suffice to say it would seriously impact the writing program and violate the terms under which that sub is being funded). The other deals with how 12th graders submit their work on Senior Projects--more specifically, on how we verify that the work they've done was actually completed by them and not someone else.
Issues of trust can be conflicting. On the one hand, we want to trust our teachers to do their jobs and do it well; I wouldn't be surprised, however, if someone could prove that one or more of the teachers is using the grading sub for a free day off. We want to trust that students are doing their own work, and although we know that trust is more fragile and more frequently violated, I have to wonder where we draw the line: unless an assignment is completed IN the classroom with the teacher watching, ANYTHING submitted by a student could be the work of someone else. Hell, I helped my daughter with one of her 7th grade assignments not too long ago; parents always walk the fine line on their younger kids' school projects.
Where do we draw this line, though? Do we draw it afar, and open ourselves up to frequent disappointment when someone abuses our trust? Or do we draw it at our feet, and check, verify, and scrutinize everything? The former keeps hope up but increases the risk of failure; the latter seems too Gestapo-like . . . so I gotta wonder why everyone's ignoring the middle ground.
Helpful hints, position essays, and useless blather from the Assistant Principal of a high school in Southern California. Posts here do not necessarily reflect the positions or views of the school or district with which he is employed.
So there.
So there.
And where is the middle ground? As Keith says, you can't put a limit on trust (Some Kind of Wonderful). So what to do?