To Pass or Not to Pass? The End-of-Year Moral Dilemma

By Colette Marie Bennett

Elena is a beautiful 16-year-old who blithely drifted in and out of my English II classroom this year without any materials. She seemed surprised to find herself in the class every day. She is pleasant, friendly, and well liked by her peers; we have a cordial relationship. Unfortunately, Elena achieved a 31 percent in English for the first quarter, which seriously damaged her grade point average for the remainder of the 2011-12 school year. Over the course of eight months, Elena continued to leave assignments incomplete and did little class work, choosing instead to text or to socialize with the students sitting around her. She lost study guides, lost materials, and lost interest in editing and revising her work. She once sent me an email telling me she "could not get online...