Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Ugh... what to do, if anything...

So. DD has two math classes this year. Both are dual-enrollment courses.

She is a senior in high school, she is 14, and she is (mostly) doing VERY well in her classes, even though she added Precalc 3 weeks late (she caught up in a bit over a week). DD, like many EG/PG kiddos, prefers drinking from the firehose. Why chase a tortoise if you're a cheetah, right?

So she tends to work in big BLOCKS of material-- she'll complete a unit of something in an afternoon. She may barely touch her other work, of course, which leaves it for another day, but it roughly all goes as planned (plus-or-minus about a week in any one class at any one time).

This is ALLOWED in her virtual school, by the way-- the only "hard" deadline is the end of the semester, or in some instances anything that is MORE than a month past the scheduled date of completion.

The problem:

a single teacher who is a bit... er... "overeager" let's just say, with the "temporary zero" on assessments/assignments. For example, my DD had four "overdue" AP Stats lessons this morning-- less than a week's worth of lessons, in other words, and she's worked AHEAD about that much in some other things. He ZEROED THEM OUT in her online gradebook, and now she has an F in the class because one of them was a unit exam.

Naturally, this is the math teacher. He also has some communication difficulties-- and doesn't really hold class anyway-- he directs students to YouTube and Khan for answers to questions.

My concern is threefold:

a) this is REALLY harmful to DD because of her perfectionism and the anxiety surrounding it. It is NOT NOT NOT motivating to her. It's punitive and results in out and out panic.

b) out-and-out panic shaves about 10% off of her usual and probably legitimate performance. In other words, if she's trying to scrabble through lessons in order to get rid of zeroes, she is earning 75-85% rather than the 95% that we KNOW that she is capable of. She's just feeling too RUSHED to do anything else at that point. I'd really like it if she didn't wind up with her first college transcript having grades that reflect PANIC induced by class procedures rather than her ability and mastery.

c) most seriously, she is in the part of the college chase that is best termed "Big Game Hunting." She has worked incredibly hard for a 14yo in order to be competitive in this race, and she's applying for a LOT of merit based scholarships and some pretty selective programs right now. Have I mentioned stress? Yes? Well, some of those programs want to see current progress reports. Guess it's just bad luck for her if it happens that Mr. Math, there, got a wild hair in the middle of the night and zeroed out a midterm, huh?




The question is WHAT to do about this. The teacher is known for this practice, but he's also the only one teaching either math class. Can she get ahead of things a week and STAY that way? Probably-- but maybe not without getting behind in AP English, which we'd prefer she not do. Also, I have concerns that if she does do that, she may sacrifice points that she will need at the end of the term in order to maintain A's. Neither class is "hard" exactly-- but the grading is mostly multiple choice and VERY much 'right/wrong' and she's lost probably 2-3% just on rounding errors and stuff that isn't technically really in the realm of "error" if a live person were grading the work. KWIM? Computational accuracy is DD's weakness in math, and the faster she must work, the worse it gets.

I doubt that the teacher will 'hear' my reasons for wanting him to NOT do this anymore. Should I even bother asking to stop?

If I don't, how do I buffer DD from the way that this is POKING at her perfectionism? I don't want her just taking a panic-driven approach, either, though-- and that is what she HAS been doing.

Her grades in both classes definitely show it, too-- she's about 1/3 complete with both, and has A- grades to show for it, so her accuracy MUST improve. It's not her understanding that is the problem. It's the computation on assessments that she is feeling highly pressured about.

Frankly, she's shutting down over it. THAT is my biggest worry.

2 things jump right out at me:-

If the only real deadline is the end of the Semester then he shouldn't be doing this.

The purpose of a virtual school is surely ALLOW a student to work at their own pace, in their own order as long as it all gets done, right?

Is this jackass actually having to mark these pieces of 'overdue' work or does a computer do it? If computer marked then he/shedoesn't have a leg to stand on and I would escalate this very quickly if he/she will not listen to reason.

Okay, the party line on the "temporary zero" thing is that it "let's students see what will happen" and keeps them motivated "to keep up with coursework."


Well, I can see how that could work for some students-- but I can also see how TOXIC the practice is for others-- particularly for cheetahs, let's just say.

As for working at your own pace and in whatever order seems fine-- well, not-so-much since Pearson took over, actually. My real beef with this zero policy is that it probably just isn't appropriate for the TOP 2-3% of students in the first place. They've never--ever-- done anything to suggest to ANYONE that they are unaware of the consequences of not doing the work, or that they might not get through it all on time. So yeah, I don't understand why it is necessary to do this in the first place. I also don't understand what purpose it serves for the teachers themselves, but there must be something, or they wouldn't bother.


Computer v. Human grading-- well, it's sort of BOTH. That is, mostly autograded, but often the teacher has to check through it and fix any stoooooopid stuff like the fact that the computer may not understand that

"two" or "2" are both acceptable answers to a question inquiring about an integer number of items, that questions 4 and 8 on that quiz have both been "invalidated" from on high and "any response" will lead to credit (my DD's answer to such questions is invariably "42," and she's chagrined that her teacher seems a bit humorless though I suspect it's the language barrier at work. He's a nice enough guy. ). In other words, I'm more than a touch concerned that it's impacting the tenor of how she is interacting with the material, which she otherwise LOVES.

He also grades ~50% of exams because those are extended response, at least in AP/honors.

But yeah-- it's a math class. Seriously, how much work can this possibly BE?

So, are the zero's just temporary? All replaced with appropriate grades when she does hand it in? Or is she penalized in some way (long-term) by this?

Sounds as though she may just have to stay caught up or ahead, then, if the temporary zeroes aren't something it's clear the teacher would be reprimanded for and if they're a problem for her. What's being done here doesn't sound unreasonable, honestly, though I can see it might not fit with her preferred style.

I think it may be a mistake to ask how you can buffer it for her. She's very close to being a fully independent college student; she needs to do it herself. And, concretely, there will be times in college when there are deadlines other than at semester end, and maybe more deadlines than she likes, won't there? If that stresses her out, time for her to learn some coping strategies, while she doesn't have the rest of the college experience stressing her out too.

If the zeroes are truly temporary, I would not worry too much. Colleges typically want to see first quarter and semester grades. I assume that she would be caught up by those points in time, and the grade listed would reflect that she had completed all of the assignments.

If they are not temporary, or if she will take a big hit on the grades if she hands in assignments late, did the teacher clearly state this policy? If not, perhaps she should talk to the teacher and offer something such as A) I will hand in all assignments on time from this point onward and B) I should have been "more responsible" and handed in the assignments on time, but since the policy wasn't stated, I feel that I should receive partial credit (perhaps 10-20% grade reduction) for the past assignments.

I can understand that a policy of no credit for late work is harsh. However, I can also understand that the teacher doesn't want to see a semester's worth of assignments the last week of the semester. Not only is it a lot of papers to grade, but a student that didn't understand the material could go an entire semester being clueless (and the teacher wouldn't realize).

Yeah-- but-- understand how an online format works. This work is NOT "late." THERE IS NO WARNING, and no due date that has been ignored.

There is no "policy" about late work-- nor do most teachers state one up front (including this one).

If there were such a policy, that's fine. But this is arbitrary and occurs randomly.

That's really the problem.

We also had a teacher two years ago that randomly assigned temporary zeros for TERM projects (even those not-yet-due)-- as a "reminder" to students that they needed to work on them. He did one of those literally just MINUTES before leaving for Christmas break-- gave my DD a zero for a project due in late January which was 30% of her course grade. Nice.

Unfortunately, that turns the course grade to an F/D/C and doesn't let conscientious students really see what their work is going to earn them in terms of the course grade.

Maybe I do just need to let it go, but honestly, from a post-secondary professional standpoint, my students would have been down to the dean's office in a heartbeat if I'd done something like this. I don't think that it's wrong to insist that this not be "at random," and that the policy be clear-- as it stands, this is the teacher's lazy (IMO) way of communicating to students without having to go to the trouble. The teachers don't see these kids or talk to them at all-- so unless parents TELL the school that there is something going on (or, in the earlier example, even when I did) it is basically like using a 2 X 4 to get their attention rather than saying "I have some concerns; can we talk?"

Is all the material for the whole course available now? If so, and if this is the only teacher that cares about when work is done, maybe a good strategy would be to spend the next however long it took - week? - doing this entire course, and then go back to the others?

Probably, colinsmum.

That's kind of the direction that I'm leaning at this point. The alternative is that when this happens, DD kind of runs around like a scared rabbit-- obviously not a way to have her performance measure her understanding (and boy, it doesn't).

I've asked that the counseling staff bring this up as a "poor communication strategy" without first contacting parents/students about concerns. If teachers are SO overworked that they cannot do that, then they need to take it up with administration-- NOT punish students for the workload.

If parents/students are unresponsive to those inquiries, or if a regular policy is announced, then fine. Otherwise this is kind of terrorizing the top performing kids for the way that they learn.

If the other teachers don't do this, then I would at least have her get far enough ahead in the math class that she can stay ahead no matter what, and catch up the other classes after that.

The points about the need for clarity are well made, but I think that the issue of whether the students are top-performing or not may be a red herring, tbh. I don't think it's generally true that top-performing students are more likely than others to need the freedom to get behind schedule (however the schedule is presented), although it may be that the higher performing the student is the less one should worry about it.

I do recognise in myself and my DS the "drink from the firehose" phenomenon, but we'd (a) always do it ahead of schedule and (b) be able to interrupt the drinking for other things that need to be done (like washing, and other subjects of work!)

I think this might be an individual style issue, more than a giftedness issue. I'd also not be too complacent about it: if the root is inability or unwillingness to context-switch on demand, well, that's essential in many careers, including academia once you get to faculty.

Yeah-- and she does do pretty good at switching like that. We've worked on that with her since it's a relative feature of her immaturity, in some respects.

But there again, clear expectations is one thing-- but this is something quite different.

Quiz time!

It is okay to be behind:

a) two lesson days, provided that your grade is passing

b) one week, depending upon your history in the course

c) it isn't. Not even one day. (yeah, yeah-- I know what marketing tells families. Bite me.)

d) BEHIND? Who cares-- just remember that your grade without the term paper at the end will SUCK. Here, let me show you just how MUCH it will suck.

e) all of the above, depending upon the teacher's whim. S/he'll let you know. Probably. Well-- maybe. You'll figure it out when it happens.

The problem is that the answer is e.

I'm not sure what kind of students actually respond to this with improved motivation, honestly.


Bear in mind that my DD added precalculus late-- and IMMEDIATELY got hit with '26 lesson' overdue (because of the high school's method of fixed start and end-dates and automatic scheduling). Three full weeks, please note.

She made up all but 8 of them within ONE week while keeping up with everything else more or less, AND took the ACT and interviewed at a college during that same week-- before she even had a course textbook. But that wasn't enough to prevent the dreaded raft of temporary zeros that took her grade from a 96% to a 17% instantly (two midterms). Her current grade is about 90% because (IMO, seeing what she was doing and how) she was doing ANYTHING to make it go away.

Like I said-- there were NO communications of any kind from the teacher about this. None. Not even "hey, welcome to my class, here are the class policies." Nothing.

This is like an adult being blindsided by a boss that gives them a crappy performance review on something that they had no idea HAD expectations attached to it-- like "being more talkative with colleagues during the lunch hour" or something-- but not to worry, that crappy quarterly performance review is just to "help you" do better by the end of the year.

Also note that part of the REASON that we're with this school is to manage things in that second e.

LOTS of medical and other stuff happening some weeks. She does miss a fair amount of school during the months of Sept and October.

This school does sound very frustrating, and I bet you'll be glad to be shot of it next year! It's probably not very comforting to think that b&m school would have been worse/impossible.

This is one of your DD's courses through a college/uni? A dual enrollment while also in high school?
I believe the preponderance of thought would be that:
1) DD needs to advocate for herself.
2) Parents are out.
3) Insisting may be out as college is not a right but a privilege (different than free appropriate public education K5-12).

You might wish to coach her, helping her collect her thoughts and the pertinent facts, while explaining to her about advocating on basis of principle, where ALL may benefit... avoid having this be about her personal stuff: grades, stress, age, etc.

She may wish to review the syllabus, course schedule, etc, to gather facts while learning from you what best policy/practice looks like. If there is no mention of due-dates rather than end of semester, and no mention of late policy, she may wish to ask about these things. She may wish to use the same style of presenting her confusion and asking for the teacher's help, which you've recently shared for working with elementary schools, thereby learning what the due dates and policies are. Her bottom line may be advocating for proactive written notice of due dates and late policies.

If, on the other hand, the college has due dates but her high school has only end-of-semester due-dates, then this is merely different than what she is used to. As it is a college course, the college rules may supersede the HS rules she is familiar with.

Schools may be taking note of her ability to self-advocate and hold her own, while remaining respectful and building rapport with her professors, as these will be important life skills she may be undertaking on a college campus soon.

In handling both her disappointment, her willingness to perform on schedule, and this advocacy opportunity, she may be influencing decision makers about ALL early college entrants. She may wish to be gracious, thanking the professor for his/her time. Above all, she may want to demonstrate that she takes personal responsibility for her education, her time management, and her choices, including tone of communication. (This is an initial disappointment, this is not dealing with an entrenched problem, where parties may be fully escalated.)

Do not play the age card; do not ask for any special privileges or leeway. If someone else puts that subject on the table, quickly side-step it to re-focus on the subject(s) at hand: due-dates, late policies, and managing expectations by providing proactive notice of these things (on a syllabus, for example).

Just my 2 cents.

Good advice for a B&M setting, Indigo.



Not-so-good for the virtual setting, where some of that is "N/A" or "Huh?" by virtue of the model.

I'm actually responsible for a number of things in this model-- like recording attendance.

Dual enrollment is through a regional CC-- teachers and courses are certified by that institutions, students sign up through the CC for dual enrollment, and teachers turn in grades at the end of the school year. The course itself is taught through the high school, and she COULD take the course without dual enrollment. (Really.)

I explain that because I understand this sounds like I must be leaving something out, it's so weird. Well, it's just really that bizarre, that's all.

The teachers never necessarily even MEET the kids they "teach."

Contact time is quite minimal-- as little as nothing at all, in some classes. Textbook and embedded multimedia lessons, and a hard deadline at the end. That's it for a "course schedule."

In this model, frequently the bureaucracy being obscured from parents/students means that navigating advocacy is NOT a job for students, no matter how capable. Most parents aren't up to it, frankly. It's a fortress.


I also suspect VERY strongly that the major communication barrier (contributing heavily to the teacher's favorite mode of communication, evidently) is a language barrier. It's the reason he doesn't DO phone calls or live lessons/meetings. He's nice-- but he really isn't completely fluent in English. That also ups the ante in terms of advocacy for any high school student. DD is pretty good with heavily accented English, and she's great with cultural sensitivity, but she doesn't yet know the most common verbal cues for "I'm really not following this" with various national/cultural/regional identities.

She depends on body language a lot. That's missing entirely here.

This program touts its flexibility.

Which is great.

But it turns out to be a right that you can't actually USE.

She may just have to work on her learning style. It is an approach that will not work in tertiary education and will only work in certain jobs. I understand it is her preferred style but she mat have to decide whether keeping he preferred style unmodified is worth the cost.

On the other hand, when there is a policy/practice that could be improved, advocacy for the benevolent well-being of those students who follow, as well as for the benefit of the educational institution (think marketing and positive testimonials), as well as the benefit of the teacher (proactively managing expectations means less time spent putting out fires later) can be a good thing.

Possibly the accumulated questions, facts and advocacy information could be drafted into a polite, simple e-mail and sent to the professor? Sometimes all one can do is to raise awareness. That can be a positive in itself. It is also good practice for future, a learning experience for how DD might approach drawing questions and information together for other in-person advocacy opportunities which will surely arise. If DD opens the conversation (e-mail conversation), she may receive a response...?

Eventually this advocacy may be an example she can speak of positively when interviewed by colleges for admissions, or in future years for employment, when she may be asked to describe a situation in which she faced adversity, and how she handled it.

Just thinking ahead here...

Thanks everyone.



This really helps me to frame things in my mind. I think that while there are a number of reasons why this practice upsets me, the NATURE of the practice is lazy/incompetent teacher communication.

Teachers shouldn't be resorting to using the two-by-four between the eyes method as a FIRST point of contact when they've not yet made expectations clear, and have no notion at all how something like that will be received by parents or students. KWIM? Practices like that are pretty old-school, and nobody uses brutality in classrooms anymore-- even at the college level.

This is a schooling model that is SUPPOSED to be flexible and it therefore attracts disproportionate numbers of students who are non-NT, are HG, have an elite training schedule that takes up HUGE blocks of time, a family seasonal obligation that requires flexible scheduling, or have serious medical problems that would otherwise keep them from attending school regularly. (Truly, I think that my DD has known only 2 or 3 other kids in all of her years with them who DID NOT have some 'story' about why they are with the school)

I can't really see this being a good way to "communicate" with any of those groups of students-- or their parents. Not without even checking in first.

I've also talked to DD (who admits that the 85% on last exam was quite possibly panic-driven because of the temporary zero) about the need to simply work about a week AHEAD in both math classes so that she can continue to work as she prefers. The only problem with that is that she also needs to keep up with everything ELSE, due to the synchronous instruction (what little there is of it-- she doesn't want to miss ANY of it) in her other classes.

I'll also add that working too far ahead is also FROWNED UPON fairly steeply in the program. While we are told that they are "flexible" and that students can "work at their own pace" what that actually SEEMS to mean is that they can "work on the computer at any time of the day" and "complete each day's work whenever they want to within that 24 hour period." Which is totally not what the official answer to those questions happens to be, by the way...

I'm actually fed up with a LOT of things this year. SO glad it's our last. No WAY would I go to bat for these turkeys with the legislature or state BoE at this point in time. No way.

IMO, they are making it increasingly difficult to justify their program as a viable alternative to kids that have difficulty with B&M settings.

Two other factors important to note:


1. Panic isn't necessarily an unreasonable response in an achievement-oriented student. The majority of teachers at the school use the "temporary" zero as a close precursor to the PERMANENT one... and the timeline on conversion is highly variable (could be 24 hours, even, or maybe never-- you don't know WHAT it means unless the teacher says so).

2. Students can't actually "use" the gradebook as a means of immediate feedback on course performance (the stated intended purpose of making it available to students in the first place) because that information's obscured as long as there are temporary zeros in place... and this teacher is notorious for ZEROING OUT THE ENTIRE COURSE-- (in advance) that is, you won't know how you did until you complete the final, unless you're willing to painstakingly calculate it yourself, I mean... and assuming that the weighting isn't shifting under you because of invalidated items on assessments (which happens-- honestly, that gradebook IS the only way to know-- I know, because I've tried doing it the other way in the past... there is some bit of weighting info that is not available to parents/students.


So yes-- I do believe that this practice is a GROSS escalation of communication and should be used more judiciously and never without communication to parents.

Some students are required to submit weekly progress reports to play club athletics here. Some may have parents who immediately resort to fairly punitive measures for any grade which is less than __________. Frankly, in my own home as a child, this would have led directly to ABUSE. Any explanation from ME would have been "excuses" which would be worthy of additional verbal/physical "punishment." My grades HAD to be acceptable or it would set one of my parents off, in a big way. Anyone else live in fear of the "call home" or the "note from the teacher" about a classroom infraction as a child? No? Well, welcome to life in a home with an abusive parent-- the ONLY good news from school is news that is bland and doesn't make waves. These teachers have ZERO way to know who those kids are by virtue of the environment (virtual), but statistically, they are out there in the same virtual classes that my DD is in.

So I have grave concerns that don't involve my OWN child at all.

This would make a good point for advocacy, IMO. A self-determining student taking responsibility for their own education is empowered by knowing how their performance is being evaluated grade-wise, and some may use this information as a time-management tool. For example: determining whether to put three extra hours into refining a paper for one class, or studying for another. Having an accurate and timely online grade book, proactive schedule of due-dates, and clear late policy are information which benefits ALL students, as well as educators, and the educational institution. You may wish to help DD process all this and draft an advocacy e-mail. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

It is probably ignorance not malice. How about explaining to him then when that doesn't work making a formal submission higher up the food chain. In the mean time maybe your daughter shouldn't look at her grades.

Puffin, that is exactly what we (all three of us) have decided. After talking to two other parents who have scrabbled their way through classes with this guy, it's LIKELY to be a no-win situation in direct contact, and *may* make things even worse for my DD...

but in the end, we're short-timers with our eyes on the prize.

The end justifies the means at some point when the system itself becomes clearly irrational. If you see what I mean.

I care that she LEARNS from her two math classes-- I want the best possible foundation coming out of those two experiences, and anything that doesn't serve that end is going under the bus. Period.

I also care that she learn from one of her other classes (this is the other area which is both redeemable in curricular terms and has a good teacher running the show).

Beyond that, we care only that her last year of high school not DAMAGE her future.

She's eager and MORE than ready for college.

I felt awful when I picked her up yesterday; she sat in on a 200-ish level Honors class (invited as part of the interview process) and the professor was clearly enthusiastic and DELIGHTED to have her there as an active participant. I was not involved at all in anything but providing her with transportation. She IS independent and ready.

It just was a huge letdown for Cinderella to come back to earth and realize that the ball was over and that she was back to the rats and pumpkin. She told me yesterday in a kind of sad wistful voice that the professor described his grading process as a rational, holistic thing-- not a rubric or multiple choice question, or five-sentence "essay" in sight. Class discussions are about presenting deep thinking and responding thoughtfully to others in response to the GROUP experience with the readings. She was in HEAVEN.

So she knows that the light at the end of the tunnel is daylight-- not a train. She's just got to do what it takes to get there. I'm so done with this school.

This sounds suitable for a humanities or sociology course such as philosophy of ethics and technology... but less applicable to math and science courses such as accounting, statistics, microbiology, advanced anatomy and physiology. The former may be highly subjective in their grading; the latter are by necessity objective and require great accuracy.

Depending on her planned major(s)/minor(s), not all courses may be similar to the one she sat in on.

Yes, she's aware-- she lives with a pair of PhD physical scientists, after all.

What she really appreciated about it was the lack of superficial, shallow CRAP masquerading as "learning" at the high school level, the level of interactive engagement and intelligence of the other students (19-22yo honors students-- who are also mostly STEM majors at this institution). Personally, I'm pretty pleased by her readiness level, having been a science faculty member. She can THINK, and she's not afraid to defend those thoughts, or use them to explore further. She can remember content, but she can do a lot more than that, too, and she's tired of memorizing being shilled as "deep learning."

Remember, this is the set of geniuses that brought us (for an AP high school literature course, mind you):

T/F Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein for Lord Byron.

{head-desk}

Hopefully she has stories which illustrate this... if she may need a definitive example to discuss during interviews, there remains that opportunity to advocate regarding the student gradebook, due dates, and late policy...

How did she answer that question?

She said "no"; In a growth mindset that may be seen as "not yet"...

NO...I should have quoted...I was asking how did she answer the T/F question about Frankenstein?

Can't say openly what "the" answer was as it's a test question. (sorry)

I mean-- honestly?? Does that even HAVE a "right" answer? I know that I posted that one in the ultimate bad question thread at one point, where someone, I think either Val or Ultramarina, pointed out that the answer is clearly "False" because Byron was more than capable of writing his own overwrought literature, and felt no need to plagiarize anyone.


Seriously-- as an essay question, this would have been a zinger, and-- I think-- a really unexpected and fresh thing to ask.

DD would have really liked that mythical exam. Too bad that isn't the kind of school this is.

Okay...that is so funny because I didn't read the question like that at all. I read it as Lord Byron, the soon to be husband of Mary (they weren't married) and someone else were all sitting around because the weather was bad and at Lord Byron's request...Mary wrote a story because they were all supposed to write a horror story as part of a contest. So T/F Mary wrote the story for Lord Byron('s contest). I think the question was missing what is in parentheses. And the answer would be T.

But now that you expanded...I can totally see "for" Lord Byron...like she ghost wrote the story "for" him. But it was first published anonymously and then under her name, right? So that interpretation would be F. Was it ever under Lord Byron's name?

Edited to add: I have been known to pass the professor (obviously in a traditional setting not online class) a note during the exam that would ask..."I am confused about question number 7. Am I to interpret it as T/F Mary wrote the story for Lord Byron's contest or T/F Mary wrote the story for Lord Byron and he took the credit for writing it?"

I have had professors at the college level throw out questions when I informed them of the poor choice of wording or they might get the other students' attention and clarify the question after I ask. I don't think most students over think questions as much as I do.

Yes-- that's one of the things that I'd caution ANY parent about in a virtual setting with an HG+ child-- the assessments are NOT simple to manage, no matter what approach you take.

They are going to struggle with assessment questions that are written with NT students in mind. Well, and when I say that, understand that I mean-- ideally this is the case. Honestly, I'm not sure ANY students are in mind with some of this stuff. LOL.

The problem is that my DD's method is the same as Sweetie's-- she would (ordinarily) simply quietly ask the teacher about verbiage/intent. If I can't figure that out and ansswer definitively (and sometimes I can't-- particularly in social science), then she is stuck waiting for a phone call from a teacher. That can take as long as a couple of days.