“The Radio Says: The Racers Are Running Away…”

Judging? Who am I to judge? To award a grade of 27, 30 or 24? Or even fail someone? As if everything depended on my evaluation, on a grade written with a pen on a register. Judging, evaluating. As if there were perfect criteria for assigning a grade. I could grade this student who is anxious for my evaluation a 23, and he might be happy … but what if he isn’t? What if he studied long and hard, making sacrifices, working in his spare time to take care of himself, and maybe of his family as well? His hands. They are the hands of a worker. But he has studied, he presents himself with dignity, maybe he will become an honest mathematician. So why should I just give him 23? Why not 25, or 27? Was the 30 I awarded earlier more deserved? Every decision is arbitrary. Only God knows and I know I don’t. But then are my colleagues more relaxed when evaluating someone? Do they have a value scale, some parameters on which they base their judgement without any doubt? Maybe. Maybe they are better teachers than I am, more able to judge. Or maybe they have this illusion, biased by arrogance. What I know is buried within me. What I know is that I cannot judge. Doesn’t the Bible say, “Judge not that ye be not judged”? If so, I don’t want to be so arrogant as to claim a right I do not have. But if I do that, would someone else really be capable of evaluating this youngster better than me? As far as I am concerned, I won’t be an obstacle to his professional accomplishments. An exam must be an opportunity to study, a confrontation, not an obstacle. Professional accomplishments come later, not now. It would be troubling if a student were to be slowed down by a grade. No, I won’t do it. A grade must be a launch pad to the future. Let’s give 30, the highest grade.