Missing the Point

Last Tuesday I covered an English class at the continuation high school. They had a worksheet on commas.

I stood at the front of the room. Two students had various questions, so I helped them a bit. Then I tried to convince the other students to do the assignment.

There was a group of them that all had copies of their transcripts. Because of the way the school works, students have easy access to their current transcripts and a thing called a status report. These report how many credits they currently have and how many credits they need to graduate.

The discussion was all about how close they were to graduating. One student explained that he was ready to go back to his "home school" at the semester break.

(Students get sent to the continuation high school when they aren't going to graduate on time. Whereas at the traditional high school a student earns 5 credits for passing each class each semester, at the CHS a student earns credits based on how much work he/she completes. Students can earn way more than 5 credits per class per semester, but only if the student does the work.

If the student manages to make up the credits he/she is lacking, that student can return and graduate from his/her previous traditional high school. But, to return to the "home school", the only credits the student can have remaining are the credits for the classes that student is going to take for that final semester.)

The student explained that he only needed a few English credits, a couple math credits, and then he could transfer. Since the semester ends at the end of January, he figured he was perfectly situated.

I pointed out that he wasn't doing that day's assignment. An English assignment. An assignment that would be worth points that would lead to another credit so that he could complete the credits needed to get back to his "home school".

He didn't turn anything in that day. Sigh. Just when I think they "get it", they again prove that they don't.