My 15 year old daughter is having a rough time with her chemistry teacher. A little background; Anna is a very hardworking self motivated girl. She has never been "pushed" academically. In fact, I've asked her to consider a lighter academic load because it bothers me to see her work so hard. She's up late studying, up early studying. No disciplinary problems ever. My daughter is truthful and honest.
My daughter is taking advanced placement chemistry. It's a very challenging course. She currently has a "B" in the class, but is pretty close to a "C". (She is a straight "A" student). The reason she has a poor grade is because the teachers records indicate a very large assignment missing. My daughter assures me that she turned in the assignment. It would be incomprehensible that Anna would neglect an assignment, she's compulsive about these things. It is also inconceivable that she would lie about a missing assignment.
The chemistry teachers position is that if she had completed the assignment, she would have the graded papers in her files. My daughter insists that the teacher must have lost her paper. (He has a reputation for "losing things".)
The teacher is really not a very reasonable man. Once every two weeks he will pick a random students homework to grade. A typical score would be a "C" or a "D". The chosen student gets a poor grade and the rest of the class is arbitrarily given 100%. When questioned about the fairness of his system, he replies, "Life's not fair, Get used to it."
Anyway, I don't really care what grade my daughter gets. In the long run it won't matter much. But my girl is taking this very hard. She's tearful and upset. If you were her dad, what would you do?
This is Anna (in the middle)
