D+!!!!! Oh my God .... I passed! I passed!!!!! Oh, man!! I got a D+! I'm gonna graduate!!!!
(Hug random Asian kid)
I wish we'd known each other. This is a little awkward.
Similar scenes to this one from the beginning of Tommy Boy happened all over the Ecuadorian coast this week*.
*Except instead of hugging a random Asian kid they might have hugged a random squinty-eyed Ecuadorian whose nickname will forever be Chino.
Schools in the coast run on a different calendar than those in the sierra and oriente. The highlands and jungle school year is very similar to the United States (September through June), while the coastal school year run from April through January. I believe that the different schedules exist to offset for climate* and the harvest schedule**.
* Not even the teachers would show up for work in the rain.
** Youth had to help their families on the farm.
Whereas Marquette University put a list of all the students and their grades on the wall, schools here only posted a list of students who failed and will be held back a year. There is no number system to hide a student's identity. The school puts up the kids full name. If you failed, everyone knows about it.
If a student fails one subject, he or she has to repeat the entire academic year in the same grade. It doesn't matter if a student does well in every other subject, he or she will have to repeat the entire year.
Students are given the opportunity to retake an exam if they fail it the first time around.
As you know, I will take any opportunity to cite Tommy Boy that I can. I was really looking for a way to put "D+ isn't a grade they like to give out, I'll tell you that much" into the post but was only able to find space for it here, at the end, below the divider line.
2 comments:
Did you see my name?
Does the local Nelson stand nearby and quip "ha ha" (or "ja ja")?
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