Even the thought of not penalizing students who don’t do their work is frankly preposterous. It sends a message that it is OK to not do your work. If they allow this to happen, the work ethic of students would become terrible. Some say that giving students zeroes demotivates them. But if you think about it, they’re already not doing their work. Does that sound motivated to you?
What I think should happen is that teachers should put the homework they are going to assign through a screening of sorts, and decide whether or not it really pertains to the lesson at hand. If not, they shouldn’t assign it.
I have had teachers who assign pointless assignments that don’t even remotely relate to the skills we will need as adults. The point of homework is to teach us the skills needed to succeed as adults and to determine whether or not the student understands if he or she has learned the material that they are discussing in class.
If students aren’t penalized for uncompleted assignments, it will lower the standards, work ethic and eventually the I.Q. of the nation. The fact of the matter is students are already not doing their homework. We are just debating whether or not to punish them for it.
Mathew Nagle, student, Braden River Middle School Bradenton
An injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere
On Dec. 4, 2005, there was a double homicide in Bradenton. These people were not celebrities, dignitaries or even “people of interest.” But these people were my world. Two of the most precious people in my life, my husband, Joel, and my daughter, Stephanie, were murdered that day.
Now, nearly four years later, I still wait for justice to be served. I wait for justice so that there is a closure to this horror and I can move on with whatever life I have left. I wait for justice for Joel and Stephanie, just to know their murderer will answer to his heinous acts. How much longer must I, and my family, continue to wait?
Within 48 hours, a suspect in Joel’s and Stephanie’s murders was apprehended and there has yet to be a trial! How much longer will I be tortured while waiting for justice to be served? Will I even live to see this justice, as I am advanced in years? Does justice even exist in my community anymore? I have been served an indeterminate “injustice.”
Dennis Wholey’s quote is fitting here: “Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.”
I want the souls of my husband and daughter to be given their rights to rest in peace. I want the man who took the lives of my husband and daughter to answer to his acts in a court of law, with a jury of his peers.
I do not ask for anything more than what is rightfully mine as a U.S. citizen, and that is “fair and swift justice.” I have yet to be treated fairly and this is anything but “swift.”
Nancy Hill
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