Sweet Gummi Mary! Please Don't Let Mrs. Hillbilly Mom Be TP.

Mrs. Hillbilly Mom is putting forth a valiant effort not to be That Person.

Really. She is quite beside herself after four years of dealing with the issue personally, and 15 years of dealing with it professionally.

Newmentia has That Person. That Person who seems to think itself a professor prepping future Nobel Prize winners. That Person who makes coursework and tests so difficult that Al Einstein himself would find it difficult to succeed.

Mrs. Hillbilly Mom is constantly adjusting her evaluatory tools. Some pupils each year, each semester, each quarter...should be able to achieve an 'A'. If not, something is wrong with Mrs. Hillbilly Mom's methodology. Which is not to say everybody should get an 'A'. Or even that everybody should pass. But the top level of evaluation should be attainable.

Pupils from That Person's rolls have, over the years, voiced displeasure with procedures. Pupils who, when told to interpret a work, do so with specific references, and reasons for their perceptions, only to be told that this interpretation is incorrect. Phooey on the effort. There is only one way to look at the assigned piece.

Likewise, other pupils in other courses of That Person, who have a proven track record for the three previous years, allowing them to soar in the rarefied air above the merely superior crowd, have voiced concerns that some test items are too random, too obscure.

A recent evaluation left the majority of the class below the passing level. A rare occurrence for honors pupils. Some tears may or may not have been generated by one receiving a 'C'. Let the record show that when the impending valedictorian scores a "B-", with the impending salutatorian three raw score points higher, and the impending thirdplaceorian one raw score point above impending valedictorian...something seems to be awry. One may have had an off day, neglected to prepare adequately. But not all three. And certainly not the whole class. Those leopards do not change their spots.

If a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist cannot achieve an 'A' in a course of That Person, WHO can?

Apparently the hue and cry from the cellar is generating a second opportunity for all involved. For the first time in history.

Please don't let Mrs. Hillbilly Mom be That Person. The one who makes reaching the pinnacle impossible. Nor the one who opens her big fat mouth to complain on her way out the door.