Moms, sound off on this one.
Brendan is a very conscientious boy. He's especially sensitive these last few weeks because of the start of school. I could tell something was wrong after school yesterday, but he didn't let it out until this morning. The school run is his favorite time for backseat confessions. I think it's because he doesn't have to look me in the eye.
What was the problem? Brendan had graded his own paper on a History exercise. He realized after he reported his grade and the teacher had entered it into the computer that there were two other questions that should have been counted wrong. This teacher is know for being tough, even mean, and I think Brendan had just recently heard the "If you get caught cheating, you can be expelled from school" speech.
So his dilemma was whether to tell this mean lady who might chew his head off or just drop it.
UGH! What's Mom to do? Grades are a new thing to him. British school doesn't stress grades at all. This was one in-class grade, one amongst many and my first instinct was to forget about it. But he was really worried. What would you do?
Well, I didn't tell him what he should do. I just laid out his options. I told him that the honest thing to do was to tell the teacher that he'd made a mistake and take the punishment, whatever that might be. The other option was to do nothing, let it go. I have a feeling that this teacher is really not as mean as she seems. She's put on her first-week-of-school face to enforce discipline. I think that if he confessed, she'd either say it was okay and not change the grade in the system, or at worst, change the grade. Of course, I don't know the lady. She could take the hard-nose approach and say that this is strike one and if he messes up again, he'll be in trouble.
It will be interesting to see which path he takes. I have a feeling his conscience won't let him forget about it, but if he has to confess to Ms. Meanie, he may just let it be. Stay tuned.
