You are sitting in math class trying to take notes on material that just doesn’t come easy to you. You look over your shoulder and stare at Suzy Q, the tall blonde girl (who happens to be good looking and popular) and you realize that she is sleeping.

The teacher announces that there will be a test on Friday. You think to yourself: that gives me four days to study and learn the material.

Three days have gone by and you have been studying for the exam. Finally, it’s test day. You walk into the class feeling confident that you know the stuff and you are ready to take the test.

As you take your seat, you see people doing last minute cramming, anxiously flipping pages and going through notes. You see Suzy Q fixing her makeup.

Mr. Smith walks in with a handful of test booklets.

“Hi, Mr. Smith,” Suzie calls out.

“Hello Suzy, are you ready for the test?” She responds, “Yes, I am.” She then laughs and Mr. Smith smiles.

You finish the test and the bell rings. You feel confident that you did well and you hope it will help your grade. You walk out of the room with a smile.

The next week you receive the test. You got a 93 percent! You turn and look at Suzy and realize that her test paper says 52 percent. You feel bad but you know she deserved it because she didn’t try.

The quarter is now over and the teacher begins to give out final grades. You received a B, which isn’t bad but you know the A would have been better. You return to your seat and wonder why Suzy Q is so cheerful and happy. It turns out she got an A for the quarter! You think to yourself, well, there has to be some kind of mistake!

You feel the energy and anger filling your body. Why did this girl get an A? She never does her homework or attends school on a regular basis. When she is in class she is sleeping, doing her makeup, or writing to a friend.

The bell rings and you walk out of class, full of anger and disbelief thinking, why did she get an A!? Then you think to yourself, is there anything I can do?

What you should do in a situation like this is go back into the room and find out why you got the grade you did. Maybe the teacher made a mistake in the grading, and you ended up actually receiving the A.

Most likely though, you will be stuck with the B. If you feel that you completed your duties in the class, yet others fell short and received a higher or equal grade, then you have an obligation to bring this situation to the attention of the administration. You have every right to be upset about it.

Some comfort I can give to you is that later on down the road you will need to use the material that you learned for a college class. When you are taking a test you can think of your friend Suzy Q and that because she slid through high school she will be suffering in college — if she even gets accepted.

You will always have teachers who you think favor certain kids. You will have the teacher who you think is just passing students because they are popular and seem important.

However, you will end up being the one who will smile in the end, when you are walking down the aisle on your college graduation day with a diploma in your hand and the favored student is five miles down the road saying, “Did you want fries with that?

-Return to September 2001 Issue-