As an educator, I hate the bell curve system, but I really hate teachers who say, “You won’t get an A in my class.” It’s not just because it causes students to begin the semester with a feeling that they will fail the course: it’s because it is the teacher admitting to their own failure to teach.
We are literally paid to teach a full curriculum. “I don’t give out A’s” to me translates to “I cannot 100% do my job.” There is no reason a good teacher can’t give you an 80-100% understanding of what is in the course. It’s our job to make sure you understand as much as we can.
A class average of 50 is isn’t a statement of how hard the material is. It’s a statement that the teacher cannot complete 50% of their job.
My grandfather was a professor and he always felt this way. He had colleagues who were very proud of their failing statistics and he always said that if students were failing, the teacher was failing. Your job is to teach them to understand the subject matter.
At my school, if the class percentage is below 50% then the principal will step in. Last year my science teacher wasn’t doing a very good job at his job, and my class is full of kids who really give a shit if they fail, so we complained. There was 27 kids telling their parents about their shitty science teacher and he got fired.
pain-lies-inside 