Amend what is broken, and you'll thank me later.

    Hello everyone! Welcome to my final AP for my class Argument. In this unit, we’ve been focusing on the question, “How does a nation contradict itself?” It’s guided us to the 1850s and near the start of the Civil War. We also visited First Defense Legal Aid, a nonprofit company working to make sure everyone has their 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments respected by police. We also got to talk with Anthony Holmes, a survivor of police abuse and the nation’s contradictions. This led us to looking into our student handbook to find something we find to be a contradiction within the institution we go to and amend it. This is the contradiction that I found.

    

Hospital Bed, 29 April 2022, Tiia Monto

     In our student handbook, there is a section of it that goes as follows:

    “If a student is absent for more than 15% of classes during a term, the student may not receive credit for the course. The student and family will meet with the Head of School, School Counselor, and advisor to address appropriate school placement and support systems.”

    If I were to break it into a syllogism, it would be as follows:

    P1: A student has missed 15% of their classes.
    P2: They need to attend classes to understand the material.
    C: The Head of School must have a conversation with them and their parents to fix this problem.

    This, however, doesn’t seem to be the best course of action. Why should the Head of School, someone who isn’t really connected with students on a day to day basis, be able to weigh on a student’s current situation? It’s similar to bringing in the CEO of a company to handle something regarding a branch they rarely ever visit. It contradicts a principle GCE has, which is to respect its students and accommodate them to the best of the school's ability.  And so, I decided to change this part of our social contract a bit. I wanted, instead of the Head of School, the Learning Specialist present, as they are someone who can more easily understand what a student may need for success, and can help them plan out what to do better. Unless there is something major, the Head of School shouldn’t need to be present.

    Here’s my argument in the form of a syllogism:

    P1: A student has missed 15% of classes.
    P2: They need to attend classes to understand the material.
    P3: They might not have the access to the things they need to comfortably go to class.
    P4: There also might be some personal problems going on in their life.
    C: We should get the Learning Specialist and the Guidance Counselor to talk to them.

    This change will, hopefully, make it so that if/when a student is put into this situation, they don’t feel as intimidated or as though they’re in trouble. And there can be maybe reasons a student finds themself in a situation like this, whether it be due to an illness making them weaker than most, them needing to provide for people in their life, an emergency that happens with no prior warnings, and maybe more examples. Amending this rule allows students more comfortability.

    If there was a historical document that could compare to my argument, I would say it's Phillis Whitley's poem To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth. In this poem, Phillis talks about how freedom is an amazing thing, and the reason she thinks this is because of her situation. She puts some of her true feelings into this. As she says in her poem,

"I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?
Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd
That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?"

     She says that she's been snatched from her homeland, from her parents, and so freedom is important to her. In that same vein, this change is also apart of my true feelings. I wish to change this because I believe the way we handle it isn't the best, and this is the way I found to express that and possibly make change. 

     If I were to connect my line of thinking to an amendment, I would compare it to the 6th amendment. It might seem strange to compare changing a part of a contract to allow students more comfortability to an amendment about trials, but once we dig a bit deeper, I think you’ll see why I connected the two.

    The part of the 6th amendment I want to focus on is the part that guarantees all people in the U.S to have a speedy and fair trial. If we were to think about the meeting you’d have as a “trial”, I don’t think there is any fairness in the fact that the Head of School is present. Since the Head of School has so much power, students might feel they’re in some sort of trouble or being reprimanded, when the point of the meeting is the exact opposite. So for a “fair trial” to occur in this sense, not having the Head of School present would make it much more to the student in my eyes.

    My peers also seem to agree with me on my position. One of my peers I talked to said that, “I didn’t even know the Head of School was informed of absences.” It shows that the average student may not know that the Head of School gets involved in these cases, adding on the fact that it could feel like you’re in trouble if you’re in this situation. One of my own classmates, K.J., cosigned on my change.

    And finally, to explain my choice of picture, I wanted to show one of the things that might hold a student back: sickness. Whether it be dealing with mental or physical health issues, not everyone is strong enough to do the things they may need to do. I chose a hospital bed because it exemplifies the issue of health.