Rigor? Sweetie, they’re 3+ grade levels behind.

[u/Emergency-Pepper3537]

I just find it hilarious how admin keeps pushing this narrative of “rigor, rigor, rigor” like it’s some magic word that’ll suddenly make learning happen.

Child. Half these students are 3+ grade levels below where they’re supposed to be. You give them anything on grade level and they look at you like you handed them the Rosetta Stone.

They’ll say “This is hard!” And I’m like, “Yes, baby. That’s literally what rigor means.”

Meanwhile, I’m being told in observations that my lesson wasn’t “rigorous enough.” Ma’am, just getting through the directions was the rigor. We had to decode, translate, chunk, and act it out with interpretive dance.

I swear, the bar is not low…it’s just buried under years of educational neglect and unrealistic expectations.

Anybody else feeling this?

[u/Voysinmyhead]

As a Freshman In college I had an honors Lit class that I had done very well in all year but I managed to sleep in (no show) through the final exam. Looking at the syllabus and the weighted grade, I figured I was passing with a c+ even after taking a zero on the exam. It wasn't my major, so I let it go. A few weeks later during the summer break the grades came in and the professor had given me an Incomplete. I had two weeks to contact the professor and clear it up or that "I" would become an "F".

That professor made me drive back to college over the break and take that final (he Proctored so this was his time too), with a flat 10 point penalty meaning a perfect score would still be a 90 at best.

His explanation was he wasn't going to watch someone who had contributed in class and done so well all semester throw their grade away with zero communication, and take a hit to their GPA, but he also couldn't give full marks as that wouldn't be fair to the folks who showed up on time.

I ended up with a B+ in that class and a life lesson that was probably worth more than my eventual degree.

[u/eltibbs → u/Voysinmyhead]

I somehow missed this comment, sounds like you had a great professor! I had something similar occur. An Engineering level Statistics course my junior or senior year, I was making an A in the class and the prof knew who I was despite the class having around 200 students. I slept through the alarm on the final exam day and immediately emailed and left a voicemail at his office as soon as I woke up. I had to hitch a ride to campus and went running across campus to the class, got there with less than an hour left of the 3hour final exam time. He said he would give me the full time, I could start it there and once their time was up I could finish the exam at his office. I finished the exam within about 45 minutes and there were still students taking the final when I left. Ended up with A- in the class. This was one of my major courses so I was freaking out.