Avoiding the Stack

I teach one class of English, as well as my four history classes. A few weeks ago, I set a due date for a science fiction story the students had been working on, and I now have a stack of twenty-five stories to grade. I’ve been avoiding them like a dreaded disease. Somehow, I wonder if editors feel the same way about manuscript stacks.

Every once in a while, a child will write a compelling story that’s fun to read, and not an excruciating ordeal of run-on sentences and fragments. Those are the ones I don’t mind grading. In a way, it’s also easy to give F’s out to the students who write a half-page story, scrawled in pencil, with misspelled words. Hey, they wrote less–easier on me.

But now that I know my students, I can see a name and predict their grade. It’s not often (okay, never) that they somehow rise above their typical writing pattern and give me a high quality story. The ones who enjoy writing well tend to write well, no matter what. The ones who don’t write well don’t care enough to put more effort into it.

Do editors view writers the same way, I wonder? Do they see a name and think–”Great! This will be fun to read.” Or do they groan and think, “Oh, no. Not another one from this author.”

Do they avoid their manuscript stack the way I avoid grading papers? I have to be in the right mood to grade stories. I put on some good 80’s music, get a nice red pen, and attack the pile. When I’m in the Zone, I can read and grade quickly. All too often, I have so many other priorities, I’d rather do anything but grade those essays.

The Powers That Be are also clueless about why the teachers dislike staying after school so much. Could it be that it’s because we are mandated to hold the Minions of Evil? That we are tortured with an hour and ten minutes of hammering in facts and figures to children who don’t want to be there and would rather throw staples at each other? That we’re not supposed to keep the other students with us, the ones with C’s and D’s who are actually trying to improve? Wow, what a concept. I think this argument is looming toward a battle. I’m hoping they’ll see it our way and understand that the old way of inviting children who need help was the best way. The ones who refused to stay for help only cause trouble anyway. Let them stay home so we can help the children who do want help.