Marybeth, young black males can definitely be empowered by listening to another group of oppressed people of color: Asian males. There are exceptions, of course, in their success, but this group, the Other, that was oppressed with various laws in the 19th and 20th centuries starting with the Chinese Exclusion Acts has mostly been fabulously successful.

Since these Asian males (the Other) are already unbelievably empowered despite the oppression day in and day out they receive from the dominant group, i.e., white people, both groups of color could share their stories of oppression and then the Asian males could discuss the ways they reclaimed and developed Asian male human capital by getting their degrees and then providing a stable home life for their children born into wedlock. Since few young black males are getting advanced degrees in mathematics, physics, computers, etc. (unless they are from the West Indies or are recently from Africa or are transfer students from Africa), and the % of black children born out of wedlock is astronomical, these discussions should prove quite empowering.

Since Asian people of color (the Other) have a significantly higher percentage of degrees, of wages, and of children born into wedlock than the white people do, they should be empowering their fellow oppressed people of color, since one of the arguments for HBCUs is that people of color feel more comfortable with other people of color. It’s a win – win situation. What do you say about this solution for empowerment?

Hi Ken, thanks for your honesty. But truthfully, affirmative action has done little to enhance the opportunities of Black men. I earned a doctorate from a top tier research university and have a very good job. I am the only Black man at my rank. I work with several white males that are in their position because of affirmative acts on behalf of their “sponsors”. So please in your honesty acknowledge there are whites getting jobs they don’t deserve and didn’t earn.

Now, if we could just get these young men to actually wear the right size pants, and pull them up over their butts – so they look like decent human beings who actually care about their appearance and presenting themselves to the world as credible, instead of foolish and slovenly - we might achieve something.

As if there’s a universal golden standard of good writing that everyone knows.

I’m very sorry to see this and other posts that suggest that any teachers have ever thought it was appropriate to deliberately give a lower grade than deserved to “to keep a student on her toes”.  This is an abuse of power, nothing less. And it highlights the difference between the humanities and math/sciences in a way that may help explain why so many have such disdain for English teachers in particular. No math teacher would ever dare mark a correctly solved problem “wrong” deliberately to send any kind of psychological message to the student. Why would English teachers think they have any right to do that?

Rob, the one thing I would have added to your conference was a recommendation that the writer make an appointment to conference with her teacher about the essay and the rubric.  You recognized, I think, that you had only partial information about the matter.
It is interesting that most of your readers assumed you knew what was what and the teacher did not.  
Your last reflection is so vital to our work with students — work and weariness may tempt us to forget the possibilities in our motivations.

A little addendum: 3 of the students who thought they were “strong” [they actually were, comparatively], after receiving C’s and C-’s on their first major paper, gathered to, as one “snitch” later “warned” me, “ream” me. One went to a dean about my unfair grading practices. If it weren’t so pathetic, tragic [little "t"] rather, I would laugh about it. Almost all of the strongest students dropped the course. Who stayed? The older students, the married ones, with kids and responsibilities, who had even less time to improve than their younger, more talented classmates.

I did find this, if not surprising, another lesson in reality. Sorry if I sound dismissive or jaded. I try not to be. But what do you do with the immature, entitled students? I noticed them get very silent and sullen, once they realized they had no way to manipulate me into changing the course standards. And then they dropped, rather than try to improve.

Perhaps it was partly me. It was a new course, a new school, a new level – one reason I granted liberal re-writes, in addition to the primary one: to enable them to improve. That escaped them somehow.

I labor on with the fortitudinous [?].

Abuse of power?  I don’t know about that.  However, rather than trying to get some message across via a grade that doesn’t consist of advice on grammar or content, I think a teacher/student conference is the way to go.

I gave my students a writing assignment that involved using a database to locate a peer-reviewed article and the students did not know what a peer-reviewed article was.  I was taken aback by this and so I spent an entire lecture talking about different sources of information.

I just received this article via e-mail and was disturbed by the fact that the student was not treated honestly by either teacher she dealt with. I have occasionally had students come to me with issues having to do with other professors and I always tell them the truth and then strongly advise them to try to work it out with their professor before going any higher.
If students are going to learn to trust us as instructors then we need to be trustworthy. I do not find this in a teacher who who give an assignment that even another English teacher could not figure out and I do not find it in a teacher that tells the student to “figure out” what the other teacher wanted and “give it to her”. We, as professionals, should be providing our students with clear, understandable assignments. They should not have to “figure out” what we want. We should be telling them clearly. This is our job; to teach. Gene

“When I taught at a large land-grant institution, several years ago, I
got the distinct impression that my job was not so much to teach
students to write better but rather to determine who could already write
well enough to remain at the university. In other words, I was a
gatekeeper.”

I’d love to know who gave you that impression.  I’m at a large land grant university and I deal with struggling writers all the time as an anthropology prof, and wonder what they’re learning in their freshman comp classes, but I certainly don’t decide that I shouldn’t be bothered with helping them because it’s not my job…

Considering how true that is, I can’t help but believe there is something HUGE missing in this story. If the student truly met everything in the rubric to earn a passing grade, then you should have spoken to the teacher to ask why – that behavior is unethical.  If you’re going to design a rubric and disseminate it to students, you need to follow it.

The fact that you didn’t really makes me question your honesty in this story.  I mean, either way you’re behaving unethically – either in allowing a teacher to give out students unfair grades or in representing a fellow faculty member in an unfair light.

Based on your actions I’m much more inclined to believe that you didn’t LIKE the rubric, but this is not necessarily the same thing as the teacher being tough just to prove a point (as you accuse her of, without saying anywhere that you actually spoke to the teacher to allow her to defend her actions).  Several of my colleagues give students 100′s for turning in a homework assignment – it doesn’t have to be correct, it just has to, essentially, be a piece of paper with their name on it.  I find that type of “homework” revolting.  It is brainless and no one should actually earn credit for being able to do that.  Needless to say, my students likely see my insistence of actually having the CORRECT answers to be me just trying to prove a point, instead of me actually trying to reinforce their learning, and show them areas that need improvement.

Very often, “proving a point” tends to go hand-in-hand with actual applications.  Taking off for even minor spelling mistakes may seem like “proving a point” to some, but I want my students to understand the importance of spelling before they accidentally inject a patient with Rennin (cheese-making enzyme) instead of Renin (an enzyme that regulates blood pressure).  I request my students hand in homework questions on 3×5 cards and inform them they will not earn full credit if they hand it in on a full sheet of paper.  When students hand it in on a full sheet (for only two sentences) it often ends up displacing other students’ work (since the cards can no longer be stacked neatly).

So yeah….I expected something interesting from this article’s title, but unfortunately all I’ve been able to take away from it – all you’ve been able to convey to me – is that you don’t like your colleague and want to find any flaw with what she’s doing.

Again, or you yourself are behaving in an irresponsible manner in regards to student grades.

Are you serious?  Are you for real serious?  If it is for school, it is an academic assignment, period.  Jeez, you sound like a student who, at the end of a semester of handing in homework sporadically said, “but you didn’t specifically say all the homework is mandatory!”  Dude, it was assigned to you, so you do it.

I mean, really.  How much specific instruction do you really think the students should have or need?  Should I have to always specifically mention not to drop their paper in Ramen noodles right before handing it in?  Should I warn them to make sure they right with the pointy end of the pencil, and not to jam that pointy end in their eye?

Here we go – I should read all comments before commenting….

I agree with the teacher.  The student should know for an academic assignment that it’s an academic format.  *Especially* if this student has as much experience writing for papers as you claim she has, I don’t understand why this could have escaped the student (unless the student doesn’t have as much experience as she claims…oh wait…Editorials?  That’s really….that’s nothing.  The student does not have “newspaper” experience because she’s gotten a few letters published.)

It really sounds to me like the student is lazy and/or a poor writer.  The student either doesn’t want to put in the work or is incapable of the level of work required by her teacher.  You seem to have an incredibly coddling view of student “education” and want to help this student avoid actually fulfilling any potential this teacher might bring out in her.

Your behavior is SHAMEFUL.  All of it, from your interactions with the students, to publishing your sordid little colleague spat on the chronicle.

Hmmm, I don’t think you’re setting up the right analogy – math teachers are not revered.  Plenty of students still bitch that they don’t know what the teacher “wanted”.  They put the right number, right?  They should get full credit, right?  They don’t get it, though, because their work was off.  While not being done to “keep them on their toes” this is done rather to let the instructor know the student has a firm grasp on the concepts (rather than guessing).

But you can only call the ump out during the game and get ejected (an F, perhaps, in this situation?) or after the game is over (possibly lost). This doesn’t help that situation.

As Rob keeps saying over and over, I think many of the posters here have misread his words. His articles is about his own grading policies being reflected upon after dealing with someone else’s student. If this good student, who is a good writer, and who works hard has encountered issues with the final grade portion of writing, it is productive for Rob to wonder how many of his own students became similarly lost. That’s what good teachers do.

Update: I have learned that this student’s mother made an appointment to meet with the teacher and with the department chair. In that meeting, the teacher offered to drop the essay grade in question if it turned out to be the difference between an A and a B in the course. The student ended up making an A in the course (although just barely) because her grades on other tests and assignments were high enough to offset that one F. Those other assignments, by the way, included an in-class essay on which she made an A. I’m not sure how much that had to do with improvements in the student’s writing and how much it was a product of pressure from the parents and/or department chair. I’ve also learned, interestingly enough, that the student earned a perfect score on the writing portion of the state’s graduation exam, which is usually administered to first-semester juniors so that they will ample opportunity to pass the test before they’re scheduled to graduate.