81. Report Cards + "About Japanese Teeth"
I'm busy with report cards these days - I meant to get to the halfway point and beyond tonight, but after getting most of the way through the boys, I just couldn't take it anymore. It was 7:30, I was hungry, and I had nothing left mentally anyway. I don't know why I'm marking in the official class order, I guess I just figure it's more egalitarian that way since I won't be tempted to mark all the best or worst students first and introduce even more bias into my evaluations.
The girls will be easier to grade - there are fewer of them. =) The girls come after the boys in the class order - this would fly like a lead balloon in the West, but it does have the advantage of making the names easier to find - for boys, look at the top; for girls, look at the bottom.
I'll be finishing the lot tomorrow - it won't be too bad as long as I get a bunch done during the official school day. I also kind of enjoy writing comments - it's an art to find a way to say what needs to be said in the most adroit, inoffensive, and good-faith manner you can devise. It IS an art, though, and so is the whole procedure - it's not as rigorous, repeatable or defensible as I'd like it to be, but I do the best I can.
* * *
Well, this explains a lot.
I don't have anything against crooked teeth - my own lowers are hardly perfect - but actively praising such is another matter! =) This helps explain why the general state of teeth here is a dentist's / Western aesthetician's nightmare.
But maybe some people oversimplify. I've known a few really attractive women with less-than-perfect teeth, and I have to admit that their teeth were kind of cute. I'll have to remember to bring it up with the next Asian girl I date. haha no But even as some of us may have been guilty of proclaiming "perfect teeth or nothing," I wonder if some people here proactively pursue crooked teeth. I've seen grins here that I haven't seen the likes of since Grade 7 English. They are better described by an exclamation than an adjective, and here it is: Yikes.
Girls and boys, see your dentist once a year, whether you need to or not. =)
The girls will be easier to grade - there are fewer of them. =) The girls come after the boys in the class order - this would fly like a lead balloon in the West, but it does have the advantage of making the names easier to find - for boys, look at the top; for girls, look at the bottom.
I'll be finishing the lot tomorrow - it won't be too bad as long as I get a bunch done during the official school day. I also kind of enjoy writing comments - it's an art to find a way to say what needs to be said in the most adroit, inoffensive, and good-faith manner you can devise. It IS an art, though, and so is the whole procedure - it's not as rigorous, repeatable or defensible as I'd like it to be, but I do the best I can.
* * *
Well, this explains a lot.
I don't have anything against crooked teeth - my own lowers are hardly perfect - but actively praising such is another matter! =) This helps explain why the general state of teeth here is a dentist's / Western aesthetician's nightmare.
But maybe some people oversimplify. I've known a few really attractive women with less-than-perfect teeth, and I have to admit that their teeth were kind of cute. I'll have to remember to bring it up with the next Asian girl I date. haha no But even as some of us may have been guilty of proclaiming "perfect teeth or nothing," I wonder if some people here proactively pursue crooked teeth. I've seen grins here that I haven't seen the likes of since Grade 7 English. They are better described by an exclamation than an adjective, and here it is: Yikes.
Girls and boys, see your dentist once a year, whether you need to or not. =)