How To Miss Your Exams
I'm not sure what to think about Cedarbridge Academy preventing students sitting their exams for being incorrectly dressed or not having their student IDs.
On the one hand I applaud the school's attempt to instill respect for the rules and make their students take pride in their appearance. On the other, enforcing these regulations so rigidly at exam time surely only encourages some students to deliberately break the dress code or “lose” their IDs in the hope of being able to miss their exams.
Moreover, while these students will have to sit their exams at another time, it seems likely that they’ll sit the same papers as those who have already done them. This opens the possibility of cheating, with those who have sat the exams already telling the other students which questions to expect.
Perhaps it would be better to only penalise the students who break the rules on the days that they don’t have an exam.
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Also, ask why did they start enforcing the dress code AT THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR? And I thought teachers were supposed to be smart. Or at least own a calendar.
Posted by Adjustah on 16.06.05 at 18:39
Unless things have changed since 1997, I recall that a student had to bring a form of ID with them to sit the SAT's. If you forgot, you got to sit the exam at a later date - a year later.
Is that a proportional response? Probably not. But you better believe no-one forgot their ID...
Posted by TJL on 16.06.05 at 19:10
The Royal Gazette should profile those students five years from now.
Any bets on who is blaming someone for not having opportunities in international business?
I like to be patient with the youth, but without strict discipline they will go wrong. It is a simple formula. Cedarbridge already loses the best students to the private system as their parents yank them out in exchange for thousands of dollars in school fees. Why is this? Because they are not consistent in their approach.
Robert K. Horton would have sent you home long ago for not having the uniform. They know what it is and choose not to follow it.
The Royal Gazette makes heros out of these kids. Life will make them losers. I do not blame the school at all. I blame the kids, their parents and the gazette (in that order).
Posted by jake on 16.06.05 at 19:52
I think they were charged a small fee for not having their I.D. cards, but still sat the exam at the same time that day.
Posted by ours not to reason why on 16.06.05 at 19:54
I'm a bit curious as to why the school waited so long to enforce the rules, but frankly I'm willing to bet this action by the school was the culmination of a whole year of trying to clamp down and being completely ignored by the student body.
Five bucks...any takers?
Posted by ace on 16.06.05 at 21:05
Ace, In reply to you comment:
"I'm a bit curious as to why the school waited so long to enforce the rules, but frankly I'm willing to bet this action by the school was the culmination of a whole year of trying to clamp down and being completely ignored by the student body."
I looked very carefully in your post but was unable to find the 'irony point.' Who on earth is running our Public school system? If the student body is able to ignore the school administration then quite obviously the public schools are being run by the students!
Sadly, I suspect this is truer than we can all imagine. Certainly the so called 'Department of Education' has little or no vested interest in running the education system. A very basic poll of their staff will show that the majority of them opted out of the Public school system a long time ago in favour of the Private system.
As for the Honorable Minister Lister and his extended gang of political relatives their knowledge of Public Education for their own offspring is sparse to say the least!
The truth is, neither the Minister, the Department of education or the Ministry of Education really care what goes on in the Public schools because they generally don't have to send their own children to them. They are priviledged enough to be able to use the Private system.
Don't you find it laughable that Bermuda's Minister of Education (and most of the Cabinet for that matter) sent their children to Private schools.
George Orwell summed it up perfectly in his book 'Animal Farm' - "all animals are equal - but some are more equal than others."
We are living in a country that is being run by hypocrites and intellectual lightweights and the Public Education system is falling apart at the seams. The Government response, a constant barrage of full page adds in the Royal Gazette (that we are paying for) advertising the idiotic micro achievements that are perceived as signs of success by our sadly misguided minister of Education and oh! let's not forget a uniform crackdown at the twilight hour of another school term at Cedarbridge Academy.
Posted by ENIGMA on 16.06.05 at 22:21
"Don't you find it laughable that Bermuda's Minister of Education (and most of the Cabinet for that matter) sent their children to Private schools."
Other than Gerald Simons, that has always been the case. It is a matter of creating an education system good enough for "them" not us.
If Orwell is followed, then the PLP leadership are the pigs. And the animals looked from pig to man and from man to pig, and they could not tell the difference.
I am sad to say that in education that seems to be where we are.
I am crying about it as I type this. My family believed in free education for everyone and this is what we have allowed it to become.
It is NOT too late. We can still play a roll in our schools.
Posted by jake on 16.06.05 at 23:28
At least in the photo they are getting practise for where they will end up with the attitude they have. Open your eyes kids - sitting on a wall in little tiny Bermuda is a waste. It may be cool to have your photo taken, and your 15 minutes of fame now but it will not get you anywhere. And when you find out later in life that you have nothing, don't blame society - blame yourself.
Posted by Somers on 17.06.05 at 08:51
Gee, and to think "social promotion" was ended last week without any fanfare or criticism.
For more than 15 years, young Bermudian students were promoted to the next year - even if they did not pass.
Write off another generation!
Posted by boogie on 17.06.05 at 10:40
It is no good to allow children to go to school every day all year in baggie pants down past their waist, sneakers, walkman, fat tie with top three buttons undone, mini skirts that would make a sailor blush, comb sticking out of the globe sized uncombed afro, high heel clogs etc etc etc, and then wait until the final exams to start enforcing school rules.
But has anyone seen how most of the teachers dress at Cedarbridge??? Track suit, tee shirt or sweat pants is the norm - and I'm not talking about the gymn teacher.
Posted by Onion on 17.06.05 at 12:12
Education is not a one way street here, while it is incumbent on the educational institution to set guidlines of proper dress and conduct for the student it is the parents reponsibility to make sure that their child follows the rules set down by that institution.
What did that child look like when they left the house in the morning? Did the parent take the time to make sure the child had everything they needed in order to comply with said rules of dress? If not who is really to blame here?
There is no excuse for teachers showing up under dressed as they set an example that the student should follow so if the teacher looks like a slob, why should the student be any different.
Posted by Chuckles on 17.06.05 at 13:42
People like jake and Somers are the type of people that seem very judgmental without having all of the facts.
there attempts to discard a social impact on this situation is not acceptable.
they take things at face value, dont ask any questions and feel that they know the ultimate truth of the situation.
they lack very important details that would aid in their search for an answer to these students disobedience of the rules...
maybe it's bad parenting... maybe the parents were @ work all night and were not awake in the morning to check their children before they left the house. and kids being kids, they are able to leave the house with the incorrect uniform.
not everyone's families are rich, work the regular 9-5 (or less), have a car and are able to drive their children to school every morning. there are so many more facts that need to be known before you try and rule out any social causes.
Posted by S.L. on 18.06.05 at 10:35