How to address biased HS teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who think teacher's don't have bias or negative feelings for students, did you even take a peek in the thread that was titled something like "when your kids stop wearing masks, are you afraid teachers will treat them negatively?" There were plenty of teachers on there confirming that yes, they WOULD treat those kids differently... separating them, being harsher on them during grading, and having an overall negative opinion of them and their parents.

And the threads about if kids are dropping masks, one thing has been repeated several times: kids don't want to drop masks b/c they don't want to be viewed as one of those "anti-mask" kids who were so vocal about getting the mandate dropped. The kids know they'll be viewed and treated differently, too.

You seem to be confused. Those reactions by teachers (and you're believing people on the Internet are who they say they are, but I digress) are valid and based on perceptions of safety and self-preservation and preservation of others. It has nothing to do with political ideology. Kids who went maskless weren't facing segregation because they were conservative, the were facing segregation because they represented a potential danger to others, including their peers. It was perfectly fine for teachers to resent the little shits for it, too. But it had zero to do with political ideology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a teacher with known conservative views on many social issues (pro-choice, against gay marriage, aligned with groups that do not believe in affirmative action or kids who are trans using their preferred gender bathroom) based on previous advocacy work.

This year DC wrote what we thought was an excellent paper related to about a particular historical moment in the LGBT rights movement, and got a poor grade. When she got the rubric and grading back many items that were marked off did not make any sense. When she tried to inquire with the teacher the teacher was very defensive and kept coming back to the point that the teacher did not agree with the thesis. The teacher also came down on DC for not presenting the other view point which is that LGBT rights are not a good thing. DC did mention that there is opposition from some groups, especially religious groups, but it was not half her paper because the assignment was not to present all sides of an issue but to pick a moment and make an argument about it. One of my good friends is a HS teacher and read the assignment and paper and was shocked about the grade and thought this needed to be brought up to the administration.

We are not sure what to advise DC to do next if anything. Is this something you would bring up and how would you do it? Would you go to the teacher first? The department head or the principal? This is a public school.

You think the paper is wonderful because it represents your point of view and you feel that you are proving to the teacher she is wrong. The paper in fact could suck. Just depends. Does the rubric say to provide opposing viewpoints and explain them? Refute them? Teens' ideas of refuting an argument can be based on feelings but maybe the point was to refute the arguments with actual facts and citations. Even so they might pick the wrong facts that don't actually refute argument. It's still a learning process.

Your friend of course is going to tell you the paper is brilliant even if she doesn't think so.

Other posters are right, you and your DD just want the teacher to be wrong. It's a waste of time. Don't teach your kid this kind of nonsense. They don't need to try and fix the teachers view points. That's not her responsibility and it's not even possible. Do your kid a favor and just tell them yeah this wasn't the right approach, learn to tread your audience, and don't waste any more time on this.

WHAT KIND OF BS REPSONSE IS THIS? ARE YOU F'ING KIDDING ME?? Are you really saying that kids should be treading lightly around their teachers personal belief systems instead of trying to learn, meet the grading rubric, and succeed based on the merits of the assignment? In high school none the less? You are ridiculous.

Because it is very likely that it is not the teacher bias but as other posters have already pointed out it is the failure to include the counter argument and properly explain it. That is the point of the assignment and if it isn't done, that's going to lower the grade. The best approach if the student really wants to work through the issue, is to sit down with the teacher and have the teacher explain the reasoning for the grade, the student to LISTEN and not defend, take notes and then read back to the teacher what the issue was to confirm their understanding.

From OP's original post: "When she tried to inquire with the teacher the teacher was very defensive and kept coming back to the point that the teacher did not agree with the thesis. The teacher also came down on DC for not presenting the other view point which is that LGBT rights are not a good thing. DC did mention that there is opposition from some groups, especially religious groups, but it was not half her paper because the assignment was not to present all sides of an issue but to pick a moment and make an argument about it."

Again, the student DID talk to the teacher! Perhaps the student could focus more on the teacher's indication that they needed to present more of the other side's argument rather than just mentioning that there are people who oppose; but it is unclear from OP's post that this was the sole problem with the grading or their understanding of the scores against each rubric.

Teachers do make mistakes sometimes. Some teachers do let their personal biases influence their grading sometimes. It is not always the student who is in the wrong. Maybe the student in this situation is; but I don't understand so many people here being adamantly against the student or their desire to clarify a significant concern.

I'm going to agree with this. What I'm picking up is the OP's kid presented a fairly superficial argument. And when the teachers says he doesn't agree with the thesis, OP's kid is interpretating that as "i hate LGBTQ people." That's probably not what the teacher is saying at all.

It's not good enough in a persuasive argument to note that there are people with opposing views. It's typical to present those opposing views and make arguments about them. This really isn't hard to do vis a vis noting that people have religious objections to LGTBQ people, but we are a secular society and we are governed by a Constitution and not the Bible. Or get into a discussion of moral versus ethical. But if all OP's kid did was argue that LGTBQ people deserve equal rights without taking the opposite view head-on, I can see why the paper might get a low grade.

[Anonymous]

There are some issues where you don't have to have a counterargument that is an opposing view.

Lets agree that's true. It is also irrelevant. The teacher did NOT assign the topic. The student chose it. If you are asked to pick a topic and present opposing viewpoints, then the student failed to fullfill the terms of the assignment by picking a topic on which there are not morally acceptable opposing viewpoints.

Could it be that this is what happened? Even if we go further and ASSUME that the teacher is one of the horrible awful really bad people who holds what the student thinks is an immoral opinion, the student has STILL failed to fullfill the assignment.

Lets say that instead the the teacher was one of the annointed, i.e., the teacher shared the student's views. The teacher should still fail the student because he or she failed to fullfill the assignment.

You can't avoid getting a bad grade on an assignment that requires you to present an opposing view by CHOOSING a topic for which there is no opposing viewpoint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are some issues where you don't have to have a counterargument that is an opposing view.

Lets agree that's true. It is also irrelevant. The teacher did NOT assign the topic. The student chose it. If you are asked to pick a topic and present opposing viewpoints, then the student failed to fullfill the terms of the assignment by picking a topic on which there are not morally acceptable opposing viewpoints.

Could it be that this is what happened? Even if we go further and ASSUME that the teacher is one of the horrible awful really bad people who holds what the student thinks is an immoral opinion, the student has STILL failed to fullfill the assignment.

Lets say that instead the the teacher was one of the annointed, i.e., the teacher shared the student's views. The teacher should still fail the student because he or she failed to fullfill the assignment.

You can't avoid getting a bad grade on an assignment that requires you to present an opposing view by CHOOSING a topic for which there is no opposing viewpoint.



I’m a yavhed and I said that 3 pages ago but people want to keep arguing. Almost certainly the teacher didn’t say “I don’t agree with your thesis.” I don’t care what these kids think or if it’s the same as what I think. I don’t argue with teens. What I WOULD say is “your thesis is weak and your evidence doesn’t support it. Additionally, you need a counter argument and refutation (per the state writing standards) and didn’t provide one. If you can’t provide one, choose another topic and rework your thesis so you can.”

[Anonymous]

A teacher *

[Anonymous]

Let's get back on topic.

OP, this is the suggestion I'd give to my kid, given the following considerations:

- there are less than three months left in the school year;
- this teacher will be giving the kid a final grade; and
- the kid is in high school and will need to face this issue in college on their own at some point.

Suggestion:

1. Let the kid make the decision about next steps. Suggest action steps but don't demand.

- Action step 1.Request an opportunity to re-submit the paper for a better grade, addressing the comments made on the paper.

- Action step 2. If approved, address the edits, re-submit the paper

- Action step 3. If not approved, make best attempt to get a better grade on next paper. If that paper is also scored low, bring both papers to administration for review. Do not send and email. Do this in person if possible.

As it is very close to the end of the year, and the teacher has personality flaws, I would not have my kid risk their grade to prove a point.

[Anonymous]

Conclusion. OP's kid is too stupid to think for himself.