By: Sam Williams [Opinion Editor]

Teachers need to hold themselves to the same standard of work ethic as they hold to their students. There is a clear hypocrisy when a student is assigned hours of homework to do in one night, yet a teacher can’t finish grading a quiz even after a couple days. No teacher should be allowed to assign homework if they themselves can’t commit to completing their assignments in a reasonable amount of time.

Before a big test, every student wants to do good. Some study their notes, some go in to talk to the teacher for last minute help, and almost everyone spends the class periods prior to the test drowning in anxiety. If tests were returned the following day, students would be able to check what they didn’t understand, and they could utilize the energy they built up before taking the test to strengthen their weaknesses. However, when teachers spend three to four weekdays, and sometimes even a full weekend plus a couple of weekdays grading the tests, students completely forget about the test: not only do they not remember the material they were tested on, but they don’t care about reinforcing their understanding.

It’s understandable that a teacher isn’t able to finish grading a test the day after it’s taken; teachers have lives and their tests are usually too long. The thought that needs to be implanted into teachers’ heads, however, is that we are just as busy as they are. We have friends, family, sports, club activities, and college preparation; some students are even so busy that they have to cancel the ubiquitous mid-evening nap. Yet, even with these similarities, students are given strict deadlines, while teachers are able to correct quizzes at their leisure. If teachers want to fully utilize their exams, they need to take the initiative and grade them as quickly as possible.

The Vernon Middle School Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Woerner, always had her tests graded the day after they were taken. Due to her diligence in committing to her own personal deadlines, her students had an enormous respect for her. No one complained about what appeared to be an overload of homework, as they knew Mrs. Woerner would never expect more out of her students than she’d expect out of herself. Furthermore, and even more importantly, students were able to see what they knew about maps and the region they had just studied the day after they finished the unit; they weren’t exposed to new material until the prior unit was completely finished. On the other hand, by returning tests days into a new unit, material blends together, which can only inhibit a students learning: the last thing a teacher should want to be doing.

In order to maximize a student’s ability to learn, teachers need to finish grading their tests sooner. It causes the class to respect the teacher more and it helps tie the entire unit together. While this would obviously be an inconvenience to a teacher, helping a student learn while gaining their respect is undeniably worth the trouble.