You Can Only Get Extra Credit If…

The other day, I was scrolling my Instagram feed; to be honest, it was one of those days where you scroll but don’t really pay attention to what you’re actually scrolling past. I’m not the only one who does that… right? A couple minutes into my mindless scrolling, I came across a post that made me stop dead in my tracks. I found myself re-reading it a few times to make sure what I was reading was actually there.

I literally said to myself, out loud, “Wait… is this real life?”

At first, the post made me angry. I was angry at this teacher for posting AND suggesting a concept to other educators that, to me, was completely unfair. I also felt heartbroken. I was heartbroken for the students who had to be in a classroom where something like this was taking place.

However, there was something positive that followed these negative feelings: I reflected. I thought about my own classroom and my own students. Had I done something like this before, not knowing how careless and inconsiderate it was? How many other teachers were doing things like this, unaware of what they were actually doing/asking?

Let me ask you a few questions before I get to the content of the post.

• Have you ever publicly pointed out the students who come from low-income families in your classroom?
• Have you ever asked the free/reduced lunch students to sit apart from the rest of the students?
• Have you ever given a bad grade to a student because his/her parents were not as involved as the “average” parent?

I’m going to assume (and pray) that you didn’t answer “Yes” to any of the questions above.

Now, let me ask you just a couple more.

• Have you ever offered extra credit for students who brought in classroom supplies like tissues, hand sanitizer, pencils, etc.?
• Have you ever thrown a class party but only allowed the students who brought in a treat to stay in the room and/or participate?
• Have you ever put points in the grade book for whether or not a student returned that movie permission slip signed?

How did answering the second round of questions go? Answer “Yes” to one of these? Maybe a few or even all three?

Are you catching on yet? 

What if Sarah could benefit from extra credit points, but can’t get Dad to stop by the local dollar store to pick up pencils because he works 2 jobs and gets 2 hours of sleep per night? Now she doesn’t even get a fair chance to get extra points?

What if Devin, a student who is so desperately trying to hide the fact that he’s been sleeping at the local shelter all week, forgets that he signed up to bring brownies to the class party? Now he’s going to be excluded from the celebration?

What if Kelsey says she “doesn’t even want to watch the movie” that is playing in class, but only says that because she knew she wouldn’t be able to get her permission slip signed because she’s secretly living at home alone 6 days a week while Mom is “out.” Now she gets a zero in the grade book?

On Twitter, I expressed my feelings after this “Instagram post reading experience” by saying…

Even if we have great intentions, like trying to teach responsibility or rewarding positive behaviors, we must make sure we aren’t asking students to perform their poverty or punish/downgrade them for things that are out of their control.

We all need to take a moment to reflect for the sake of our current/future students. Are there any grades, requirements, or extra opportunities that are offered to your students that might not be completely fair?

All of our kids deserve a chance; remember, they’re just kids.

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If you’re wondering what the Instagram post was, or who posted it, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. I’m sure many of you can infer what the gist of the post was; however, my purpose in this blog post was not to grill/embarrass the teacher from Instagram. The purpose of this post was to remind us that we could all probably use a moment to reflect on how equitable our classrooms are.