The daughter of one of the store owners in town told me why she's not coming back to C--- school next year, no matter whether she passes the exams or not. She's clearly very intelligent, speaks Portuguese fluently and deals with difficult subjects with ease. She told me how a mathematics teacher would refuse to call on her in class, though she knew the answer (and arguably knew the material better than the teacher did) and would consistently ignore her.
Come the end of the year, though she knew the material inside and out, she got a 9 in math (equivalent of an F, a high F). The idea, whether verbalized or not, was to make her pay the teacher in order to pass. It was known she had money. But she didn't pay, so had to take an exam that she should have been exempt from in the first place - and is now afraid of failing, because of this very reason.
This is not to say that I believe this story completely or that I believe the teachers would do this - but I would be naive to think otherwise. She and many other students don't go to my school because of repeated incidents like this, and the general attitude towards my strictness seems to agree with the mood of the school.
I'm not alone, though, and there are other teachers who want to see things change. But they suffer and are few.
This sort of thing happens the world over - so can I change this one little element or is this too big of a task? And should I?
Peace
John
