As we reach the end of the term at the school where I work I find myself facing an ethical dilemma.

At the end of the term, those of us teaching junior high school first year classes will have a meeting to decide which students to send where. Right now the classes are divided only by number. However, after we finish with them, they will be divided into “S” classes, which are higher level and “R” classes which are lower level. After we finish, the “S” classes will have 20 students whilst the “R” classes have 14.

The ethical dilemma involves troublesome students who also happen to have good English. Do I play things honestly and keep the good students in the higher level class or do I find way to fail them and get them sent to the lower class?

Similarly, there’s also the dilemma with troublesome students who have poor English. Do I pump up the scores of students who’d otherwise stay in the lower level “R” classes and pass my problems onto others or do I write down the crappy score they’ve earned and keep them the rest of the year?

Thus far there are only a few students creating the dilemma. Two in the future “S” classes who are at the edge of “restless and filled with bored energy” and “future asshole”. Often, with the higher level classes, the influx of students from the other class changes the class dynamic for the better. (However, there’s always THAT class.)

With the lower level class, the influx of weaker students often changes the dynamic for the worse. The new students don’t like the new accent (which they can’t understand) and they feel compelled to test the new teacher’s limits.

Eventually, students in both classes will hit their puberty growth spurt and as their bodies grow their brains will shrink to teenage size. This makes them ready to be second year junior high school students, who are usually the worst students.

The trouble is, I’m not the only one making these decisions and we probably offset. Sigh.