Unfair Attendance & Work

For this course Argument the unit we studied was “1857”. I was assigned to choose an amendment from the GCE code of conduct book. The amendment I chose was Field Experience. In this class, we learned about the constitution, amendments and our rights. What I am most proud of is choosing an amendment that I really feel strongly about and like. The most challenging thing about this assignment was choosing a rule and branching off of it. The purpose of this action project is to develop your own amendment using the GCE code of conduct explaining your change to the rule in which it’s

I would like to introduce an amendment to improve the GCE Code of Conduct’s section, “Field Experience”. Currently the rule for students who miss FE’s is:

Tardies:

• If a student is tardy for an FE (and missed the FE), student will: 
• be marked absent for the respective course (morning or afternoon FE) 

Remain on GCE Lab School premises and are encouraged to work on a FE make-up plan that is of equal or better value in order to receive partial credits for the FE. Student must submit lesson plan to teacher via email. Be dismissed at the end of the school day in the case of an afternoon FE and will be required to stay if s/he misses the morning FE. 

Absences: same rule mentioned above applies.

As a formal argument this FE rule is written as:

P1: GCE believes that FE’s are very important to the courses that every student takes. 

P2: FE’s are part of every student’s academic experience and occur each week. 

P3: Every student that is absent or tardy on a FE day are marked absent to the respective course and FE itself.

C: Students who missed school or are tardy for an FE should be required to complete make-up work rather than being marked “absent”.

There are two reasons why this amendment is unjust: 1) students’ attendance records are penalized for the absence, and 2) students’ academics are penalized because they can only receive partial credit for the FE deliverable.

As far as attendance, the current rule is unfair because students are being punished for being tardy or absent for an FE by being marked absent (unexcused), even if s/he were tardy. Students are aware that they can not go on there own on a FE unless permission is given by a teacher to the students. Students that do come and miss the FE are to stay and do make-up work. I think that this is totally an unfair rule for marking students come late and missing an FE. I understand that there’s make-up work that can be done but some FE’s are require attendance that can’t be reproduced (ex: Gravity Tank, Threshold Acoustics) places like those are hard to make-up work. The make-up work depends on the type of FE it is because there can be places like a guitar centers and a bike shops that is public and easy to access to. The Code of Conduct explains that students are given an “FE make-up plan that is equal or better value in order to receive partial credits for the FE”. I think that we should get partial credit only when students miss an FE that is not reproducible. However, if students are able to make-up the FE experience entirely on their own, they should be allowed to earn full credit on the deliverable. I find that being absent for an FE and receiving a zero on your FE deliverable is way too far out of the line.

I also understand that all students that are going to be missing an FE or are going to be late should contact for the make-up work that should be given to them in case they don’t show up to school.

The revision I propose to the current rule is that student who do attend the FE on their own time and complete the deliverable, should be able to receive full credit; they already are being marked absent so they shouldn’t be punished twice. My amendment to this section of the Code of Conduct as a formal argument is recorded below:

P1: Students will sometimes miss FE’s. 

P2: Students will get marked absent if they are tardy.

P3: Students will get marked off for their deliverable, for missing the FE.

As I was asking one of my peers about what were her thoughts on Field Experiences in GCE being unfair or fair based on the student Code of Conduct she said, “I have ran into this problem before, when I was around 5 minutes late and possibly couldn’t complete the FE on my own. I agree with you, there should be a finer line of what can be make up work and for the work someone did prior to the FE to be accredited”. I strongly agree that we can make up the FE deliverable if the FE is attend-able on your own time and earn full credit for their deliverable.