Traveler, Writer, Aquarius, Peace Corps Volunteer
The evidence
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�Look,� I say. �She didn�t know the answer to my question, she left out the most important part of the first question, and she made several grammar, tense, and pronoun mistakes. I think a five is for students who get everything right, so she�s got to be a four.�
�And Lewis,� countered Natasha, �what are we to give the other Spanish group who know little English at all? It�s not fair to give them threes and Sveta a four when she�s clearly much better than they are.�
�Well, of course you give them what they earn. If they are only a two or a one, give them a two or a one.�
And here, like a giant crane smashing into the brick wall of reality, Natasha hit me with something so absolutely ridiculous and stunning that I was at a complete loss for words and spent the remaining four hours dumbfounded. �Lewis, the students pay to come here and we can�t give them ones or twos. Even the worst students have to get threes. We tried to give them twos last semester to get them out of here and the administration told us to pass them.�
�The administration made you pass them, even if they don�t know the material?�
�The students pay,� she reiterates, making me understand that students effectively buy passing grades by default simply though paying tuition. �It looks bad on the department if the students don�t do well.�
So there it is, black and white. I had heard rumors about this kind of thing before, but now it was real. I also know that bribery is rampant at universities in Ukraine, and an accepted standard practice. But why would any student have to bribe a teacher when the school�s afraid to fail anyone for fear that it�ll look bad?
I�m not na?ve enough to know that this doesn�t go on in America too, where school funding is predicating on test scores and graduation and dropout rates. Maybe America�s even worse, because we operate under this grand illusion that everything we do is on the up-and-up. I�ll never forget when this American businessman, professor, and proselytizer came from Arkansas as part of a goodwill mission to discuss business ethics with our students. His agenda was as much religious as political. After blaming the Enron and Worldcom disasters on greed and dirty business, he actually told the students that communism failed and capitalism won because business in America is honest. He said with a straight face that honesty is the foundation of the history of American business. And this guy is a business professor? How I wanted to ask him to explain the �Robber Barons� and the �Boss Tweeds� and industry lobbies and special interest money and kickbacks and how exactly they fit into his little honest world.
Sveta�s four remains in the book. The longer the exam lasts, the guiltier I feel about it. Other students perform better. Marina is outstanding. Several other students nail all of the questions. Out of twelve students, there are five fives and seven fours. Natasha tells me many of the students will be disappointed � they are used to getting fives. I tell her if they have any complaints they can come to me and I�ll discuss it with them. I also feel guilty because on Fridays I teach at a different school and I had to blow off those classes without telling them because the exam ran long.
I walk outside into a bright afternoon day and put my sunglasses on. It�s been a tiring five hours and I�m hungry. The marshrutka stop is quiet. There are two babushkas and an old man sitting on a bench. A young mother walks by with a stroller. In the distance, getting closer, I see a number seven marshrutka. It stops for me. And life goes on.
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