A Series of Four Queries - Query #3: How Does Wohlsi Handle the Difficult but Unavoidable Aftermath?

I received a call from her mother. She seemed to know as much about the essay as her daughter did, and she had misconceptions that were identical. I found myself repeating my earlier instructions.

She stopped the conversation and insisted that I provide a reason for giving her girl such a miserable grade. I ended up emailing my digital copies of the drafts and providing a complete account of the conversations she and I had had.

I will confess, I have my doubts during moments like these. Parents have threatened to meet with my principal; they have complained that I destroyed their children's perfect 4.0 GPA. I have been accused of being an irresponsible non-professional, perhaps guilty of malpractice, perhaps deserving of a lawsuit.

Parents occasionally complain about the assignment itself. They begin to criticize me for expecting too much of their kids. Many tell me that English has always been a good subject for their children. And I reassure them. I tell them that their kids will continue to do well in the future, in large part, because they've learned something very important in my class.

Incidentally, no confrontational meetings or lawsuits or parental acts of retribution ever occurred over the years. In fact, the rare complaints of parents were far, far outweighed by statements of gratitude. My parent-teacher conferences every year, without exception, were overwhelmingly positive. They all came down to one simple statement. I heard it said many times exactly this way: "I wish more English teachers would do what you do."

Of course, I was always able to substantiate my evaluations, when necessary, with documented evidence of every kid's performance. And it is far easier these days to gather it up, now that so much of it is in digital form.

I didn't have the verbal stylist as a second semester student, so I wasn't able to address some of the essential skills she'd missed along the way. She'd have gotten some extremely close supervision from the start, of course, if she'd continued as my student.

The overwhelming majority of kids who took my class for more than a single semester, some of them for subsequent years (repeating a course they'd failed, or taking English 12 after they'd had me for English 11), showed tremendous growth as writers. It's a pity that all our schools can't be smaller. We teachers could keep more of our kids, particularly those who prefer to stay with us. They'd get used to our methods, and we'd become better teachers, not only because we'd see and appreciate growth, but also because we'd notice what works best to foster that growth.

I'm sure this particular girl despised me for being one of the first teachers ever to question her right to make free statements of prejudice. But someday, I'll probably see her in the local pub, and she'll say, "Mr. Wohlsdorf, you were right. You really did teach me something."

That's a direct quote too. I promise you, it is. I have heard those very words, literally dozens of times. As Beowulf might tell you, "I'm not boasting. These are just the facts."