Although I came in to my school at the end of the semester, I was responsible for grading final semester projects for my 12th grade students. Students here are very particular bout their grades due to stiff competition with getting to American universities. Parents can also be very strict about grades (or marks as they call them) because they see their child's success as an opportunity to move up in family prestige and social status.
No wonder my students began to get manipulatively nicer to me as the semester drew to an end. "You are the best teacher, teacher." and "We love you Mr. Roger" became more frequent as grades were getting close to being due. The moment students finished their PowerPoint presentations on "Comparing and Contrasting Ancient and Modern Leaders", they were asking if they received full marks or 100%. I told them that it would take time because I had to provide feedback and complete rubrics. I told one that he would have a high 90 grade and he almost had a heart attack. He explained that 1 mark, a 99%, would not be acceptable to him.
I worked hard and finally had all grades posted outside of my office by last week. Immediately, a deluge of students had hundreds of questions about their grades and how I had "given" them what they earned. Soon, parents were coming to the school to have a conference with me. I was not fearful because of how I prepared. Each student had a rubric along with comments. What I was not prepared for was the disrespect I got from one parent. He was incensed that his son received a 94 in my class. I was brought in to a conference room and was berated in Arabic about how he has a boot in his mouth at work. If you know anything about the Muslim culture, you know that the foot is seen as the dirtiest part of the body. This was why a shoe was thrown at George Bush that time! He said that to say that work was horrible and he had to leave to deal with this issue of his son's grade. As it turned out, his son really earned a 99% but there was a computing error on my part that was already fixed in the system. He was not satisfied with that answer. He went on to yell obscenities in Arabic while speaking to the translator. I was told that he was saying that incompetent Westerners are brought in to teach their kids and that there is no room for errors. I don't like stereotypes but was told that Egyptians can be very emotional and anal about their grades due to the stress of their children being competitive. Some even cane their children if they do not receive full marks.
I felt very disrespected but chose not to comment during the conference. After all, this is a different culture and I have to understand that Westerners are not always viewed in a positive light. I saw other parents and most were very respectful even if they didn't agree with their child's grade. It helped that I was prepared and calm. The manipulative students may no longer like me. I have found peace in knowing that. I hope that students will understand that they will have to work hard in my class to succeed. This is how the real world works and I hope they will respect me for it later.
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