Of Skiing and Midterm Grades

-I went skiing again. I skied all day with my friends, got to the bottom of the hill (and I do not say "hill" to be cool, this "mountain" really was just a hill with trails), stood in the lift line, and broke my skis. Which one does not belong? It was the weirdest thing-I was just standing there and I felt the pressure release from my left foot. I looked down and my boot was out of my ski. The same thing happened to my right foot, almost like my skis were ejecting me. I picked the skis up (after attempting to get back into them a few times with no success) and the back part of the bindings fell off. According to the guys in the rental shop, my new boots were too big for my bindings (odd, because I'd been skiing a few times before they broke). At a ski shop, however, they said the bindings were fine, just not locked in place well enough. Luckily, I will have my skis back in time for this weekend.

-Schools should not do two things around the time of midterms (other than host a strike): delay the distribution of report cards and not give out midterm grades until the report cards are distributed. This annoys me. Teachers are not allowed to give us our midterm grades until we see them on our report cards. Our report cards, due to a delayed midterm exam, were pushed back a week.

Now, sometimes teachers break the rule, but not for everyone. In my history class for the past two years, the teacher (I've had two different teachers) both told kids when they got a 100 (it was only one kid per grade, interestingly enough, but two different kids). My Spanish teacher last year told me that I got the highest grade on the midterm of everyone taking the course (a 98). And if you ask a teacher whether you passed or failed, they will usually tell you. My history teacher has given out numerous hints, such as "you'll all be happy".

Then there's my math teacher, who gives the class average. My Spanish teacher, who said something to the effect of "This class had a high percentage of good grades. I'm proud. But, this class had a high percentage of failures or just passing. I'm not so happy." My Chemistry teacher was comforting: "Some of you will claw tooth and nail to pass this course...and some of you won't be happy with your grades, but they are pretty satisfactory." The only one who did not say anything was my Religion teacher, who said, "I am not allowed to disclose that information. School rule" (a change from last year's, who told me during the test, "I'm sure you did fine" and gave out the grades "secretly" ahead of time). Clearly, teachers are bad at keeping secrets and probably don't like withholding the information.

Students like it even less. Why is that even a rule? It doesn't seem dangerous to know our midterm grades ahead of our report cards-after all, we know all of our test grades ahead of time, and some teachers even give students the class average right before report card time. It's one of those school rules (and there are a few) that don't make much sense.