Teacher promises student will “NOT” get A in her class – Fail

Teacher promises student will “NOT” get A in her class – Fail

Does this teacher really have it in for these kids?

One of the things I had to deal with when the school year started with my teen age daughter – was the adamant declaration from one of her honor class teachers. The way my daughter describes what happened on the first day of school goes like this:

“We walked into class and on the first day of school the teacher tells us that this class is for serious students. She then tells us that no one will get an “A” in her class.”

Suffice it to say I was a bit concerned but I gave the teacher the benefit of the doubt – I tried to calm my daughter down who was concerned that she was not going to be able to keep her ‘A’ overall average and good grades up because this teacher had it against her. I did my best to help my daughter to think positive: maybe you misunderstood her I said, maybe she meant to say that you had to work real hard to get an ‘A’ in her class or that what she was secretly doing was challenging you and the rest of this honors class to do more, to excel.

do well in school
Hysterically my daughter started to argue with me: you don’t understand Dad, she said “YOU NEVER WILL”, that there is no way possible that someone will ever get a grade of ‘A’ in her class. I was starting to get concern because my fear was that my daughter believing that it was impossible to get an A in this class; then she believe that she shouldn’t even try.

I spoke with her for a long while and I reminded her of what I have always told her, what I have tried to teach her over the years – success is not about what others say or do. Success is about you facing a challenge, giving it everything you have and doing your best to achieve your goals. Even if this teacher has it out for every student in that class, even if she purposely gives you a lower grade than what you deserve – again, we are speculating, I will give her the benefit of the doubt, you should strive for excellence.

She looked at me and she said: but what if I don’t get an A in the class? To this I replied, as long as you give it your best, did better and gave more than what was asked of you – I will be proud of you and you will be proud of yourself. To be honest I wasn’t sure if the conversation went anywhere – teenagers have a way of saying “I know” or “ok dad or Mom” and still doing their own thing.

It has been more than 9 weeks, we’re about done with half of the semester and while it was a rocky start, I am proud to say my baby girl has a current grade of - wait for it ….. Yes – an A! In fact my daughter was the only one to pass an important test the teacher had prepared for the class. Of course my daughter was not happy that the teacher singled her out to the class as she told the other students: “you see if you would have studied you too could have passed this test like ….”

One of the reasons I wrote my book: for Children How to become Rich, Successful and do well in school, was because I wanted to give my children a simple reminder of what I have been trying to teach them all their lives. Children have the capacity to achieve greatness, they simply need to understand the principles and create a desire within themselves to strive for more, to ignore the "nay-sayers" and to challenge themselves.

Now, this teacher may decide that she will not allow any student to best her, that no student will get an A in her class. But I am hoping that my daughter will first continue to excel in her class, second I hope that if this teacher does this – that my daughter take this as a lesson to be learned: there will always be haters – but only you know the truth.

But secretly in my heart I'm thinking - prove that women wrong baby - you can do it.

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