finals.

I had extraordinarily good attendance on finals day.

Students that had not been to school in months were in my class at 8am sharp for their exam. It wouldn't have made a difference, I wanted to tell them, if they got a perfect score, they would still fail the course. But I didn't say anything.

There was a certain respect in the classroom on finals day. Not for me, necessarily, but for each other. For school. The exam wasn't difficult, really, but for those that hadn't been to school it was impossible. No one gave up, though. Normally there are students that don't make a mark on a test, or students that just fill in circles without thinking. On finals day they all tried, desperately, to do well. It was a peek into what it might be like to teach in a more competitive school.

I still failed a lot of kids at the end of it all. It was a little sad. A lot of kids that hadn't done anything all year tried really hard for the last few weeks. But I couldn't pass them. They just didn't cut it, when it came down to it. They'll have to take the course again next year. A lot of the kids came up to me after school the last day and asked what they ended up getting. Aaron came to me after last period. "Did you finish the grades?" he asked. "Yup" I told him. "What did I get?" he asked. "You didn't make it, Aaron. I'm sorry. You got a 37%" "Even with that last project!" he exclaimed. "Sorry" I told him "You just missed so many other assignments."

"That's okay." he shrugged "I didn't really try that hard, I guess."