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EDMONTON - Lynden Dorval, 61, has been a teacher for 35 years.He d be in the class room today at Ross Sheppard High Schoolexcept he s been suspended. That drastic action was taken because Dorval refused to go alongwith a misguided scheme cooked up by educational theorists andschool administrators. Under this scheme, it s no longer possible for high schoolteachers at Ross Sheppard and numerous other Edmonton schools togive a student a mark of zero on an assignment or test, even if thestudent fails to hand in the assignment or write the test. Instead,students are given a final mark based on the work they do complete. This policy has been in place at Edmonton junior high schools fordecades, Dorval says, but it is now working its way into local highschools. Ross Sheppard s principal brought it in last year. Dorval refusedto go along with it and was reprimanded. He refused again thisyear. He was reprimanded again. Finally, on May 18, after a meetingwith Edmonton public school board superintendent Edgar Schmidt,Dorval was suspended for his defiant behaviour. Dorval says if he doesn t accept the new grading policy, he willlose his job. I met with Dorval on Thursday and immediately thanked him. It snot often any of us see real heroes, people who put theirreputations and jobs on the line to uphold a righteous principle.Dorval fits that category. By refusing to accept lower standards inour schools, he s standing up for all parents and students. But Dorval is a reluctant hero. When I ask how he s handling hissuspension, his eyes fill with tears. It s been pretty tough. I didn t expect to end my career insuch a dramatic and sudden way. In his researching of the so-called No Zeros Policy, Dorval foundit s tied to the self-esteem movement, to the notion that ifstudents get a zero it will damage their egos and they will giveup. But he s found in his years of teaching that students whodon t do the work simply don t like school and don t care to dothe work. Essentially, many have already given up, he says. Yet almost all students, he says, will make some effort to catch upon their work when Dorval presents them with two sets of marks. One set shows their average mark for all their completed tests andwork, but not factoring in the work they have failed to complete. The second set of averaged marks factors in the zeros the studentswill get if they fail to do all the required work. This second,lower set of marks usually does the trick, Dorval says. I justget a flood of assignments in and students coming to me, Can Imake up this quiz? The students have until the end of the school year to catch up,without any penalty. I don t give them any punishment at all ordeduction. Dorval s system strikes a decent balance. The students who do thework on time get their marks. The students who are late are able tocatch up and have plenty of incentive to do so. And those whodon t care to work get a real-life lesson: If you shirk, evenafter repeated reminders, there will be a negative consequence. These are young adults now, Dorval says. They re going to beout in the work world. ... Somewhere along the line they have tolearn they have to be accountable. If they don t do stuff, thereare repercussions. Some school administrators like the No Zeros Policy, Dorval says,because it s a way of passing students and having them graduate. To me, this is just a way of inflating marks. It s not reallybenefiting the students. I ask Dorval if he can fight this suspension and this policy. He doubts he can have much impact. I m only one person. I only have so much power. But I suspect Dorval is far from alone. Many of us are frustratedwith the lowering of standards inside and outside of our schools.Just as teachers are severely undermined if parents don t insistthat their kids do their school work, so are parents undermined ifthe teachers back off on that same responsibility. That is what ishappening now with the No Zeros Policy. It s got to go. And Lynden Dorval needs to be handed back his job. We can use everyteacher with high standards that we ve got. Update Since this story broke we have received many thoughtful responsesfrom educators regarding the "No Zeros" Policy. I have collectedthe responses into two posts, one with educators in favour of thepolicy, the other with educators against the policy: Educators Speak Out: The Case Against the "No Zeros" Policy Educators speak out: The Case In Favour of "No Zeros" Policy Twitter/@DavidStaplesYEG dstaples@edmontonjournal.com. I am an expert from ladies-churchhats.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Ladies' Casual Hats Manufacturer , China Wool Felt Hats, Wool Felt Hats,and more.
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