New trail

It’s grade calculation time here again, which means that students are realizing that simple math does not allow for the magic that needs to happen for some of them to be able to pass their classes. The fact that usually about half a class does not have the grade needed (10/20) is rarely seen as the fault of the professor here. “The students are lazy,” is the mantra of most of the discussions that happen after it is realized that the statistics of grades this semester is no better than other semester.

I used to believe this as well. I didn’t understand why students didn’t realize that they needed to study. I didn’t understand what students did when they went home. I didn’t understand how students thought they were going to pass if they are continuing to write in French on an English exam.

The students, though, aren’t lazy. They are being raised in a culture that doesn’t place as much of a value on education as the American one to which I’m accustomed. Most of my students are of the first generation in a family to go to school. Their parents don’t speak French, they don’t know how the school system works and they don’t understand what this piece of paper with a number out of twenty means.

My students aren’t lazy. They’re trying to figure it out all by themselves.