A student recently went viral after asking his teacher to give whatever bonus points he got to the classmate with the lowest score. The gesture was not lost on the teacher who appreciated the sweet thought and posted it on social media. However, the student’s action was met with different reactions online.
It is a fact in life that there are people who are more intelligent and academically inclined than others while there are also those who prefer the arts or music but are having a hard time coping with their academic lessons in school.
But schools give grades based on scores in tests, performance tasks, and projects that the students have to make. If they score in the tests and other factors, it is also expected that they would have lower grades than those who score higher.
Since schools also have a cut off for the grades that students are expected to have so they can go to the next level, it is still important for students to also reach or surpass that mark. But what if they really can’t do it because they aren’t academically inclined or are really having trouble in school because they have a lower IQ than the other students?
Photo credit: Winston Lee / CNN Philippines
Winston Lee, a teacher at Letcher County Central High School in Whitesburg, Kentucky, was just checking the test papers submitted by his Grade 11 students when he noticed one that had a special note.
“If you could, can you give my bonus points to whoever scores the lowest?” the student wrote.
According to the teacher, the student already knew that he had +5 in bonus points after doing well in the previous day’s review game. Lee did not mention the name of the student but said that straight-A student didn’t get a perfect score for the test as he only got 94 in that test. He could have enjoyed a near-perfect score if he kept the bonus points yet this guy decided to give it away to another student.
Thanks to the extra points, a student in the class went from a failing mark in the test to a passing grade. It made a huge difference to this student’s score!
Quite surprised by the student’s compassionate gesture, Lee posted the note on social media.
“He wanted to give up what he had earned so blindly. I took it as a really compassionate, loving and kind act from a young person that most people would consider rare,” he wrote.
The post was met with mixed reactions from netizens, with many commenting that the students’ grades reflect that they learned something when they actually didn’t while others said that it would have been better if the smarter student offered to tutor the others instead of just giving away the points.
But Lee said he wanted to focus on the positive side of the gesture.
“Never in my teaching experience have I heard of a student willingly give away something they had earned to allow an extra opportunity for someone else. So, the ultimate message is to take from his example and pay it forward,” Lee explained.
