A PRODUCTIVE STRUGGLE  “Thank you, Mrs. Bolden, for everything”, NL said, handing me a box of chocolates. I smiled and thanked him. NL is a nice, hard-working young man. He has a good work ethic, is very well-mannered and an overall joy to teach. But his parents have been somewhat concerned because he was not an A student in Calculus. They have requested a parent conference, asked if he could...

“Can my son have extra time on the test,” the parent inquired. Her son, a sophomore in AP Calculus, had a B. He had never had a B before. He was always the “smartest in the class.” She reasoned, surely the time restraints were preventing her child from achieving an A. As teachers, we receive similar requests often. ”Make life easier for my child.” Prevent my child (and me) from...