Drafted in the earnest, good-willed interest of all Pre-AP Precalculus students at Martin High School, this document is meant to call to attention certain aspects of the Pre-AP Precalculus instruction at MHS that lead to the misrepresentation of students. The ineffective instruction methods have taken a heavy toll and accordingly, students are a great ways away from being represented accurately by their grades. In addition to these poor grading methods, the instruction has for the most part failed to impart upon the students the WHY of what is learned because, as it seems, the instructor has trouble explaining that information. Below is a list of grievances compiled from the collective viewpoints of many of the Pre-AP Precalculus students at MHS. - The instructor in many cases avoids (be it unintentionally or not) giving anything more than superficial explanation of mathematical equations and theorems. This can be evidenced in the instructor's often present reluctance to truly answer questions to the best of his/her ability. Frequently, in response to a question requesting deep explanation behind the methodology of solving a math problem, the instructor puts the answer on the overhead and leaves it at that. This disregards, however, that not every problem can be answered merely by what is shown in the work; oftentimes, learning math requires the thorough explanation of theory by a skilled instructor that cannot be shown on paper. - The instructor's answer sheets are frequently riddled with incorrect answers. It is up to an instructor to have entirely accurate answer sheets for ,if they are incorrect, students will fail to discover whether what they did on their homework is correct or not, and are put at risk of getting incorrect answers on tests and quizzes because they adhered to the incorrect answers on the answer sheet to their homework. - Grades are marks given to assess how well a student has mastered the curriculum of a class. Thus, the instructor's administration of grades is, for many students, backwards. The instructor has consistently forsaken grading students' work on how well they know the material in favor of grading to personal standards that are simply too rigid. These standards hold little meaning to the rest of academia, and students are often punished by them too severely when they should not hold such clout. An example of such a standard is the "rounding to three places rule." A student's choice of rounding to however many places has no reasonable impact on how well that student can find the answer to the problem. After all, the answer is only achieved after the entire process of solving the problem has been conducted. So, the way in which the instructor may deem an answer wrong if the means by which that answer is achieved are correct and the answer itself is correct or nearly correct with a miniscule percent margin of error is inappropriate. The ultimate flaw of this system, then, is that the resulting grades may not represent how well a student knows the material of the class (the important part) but instead how well a student can adhere to strict guidelines that are unrelated to intellectual capacity and only to the capacity for paying attention and obeying. We want to build a society of thinkers and leaders, not followers and subordinates, and this is not the way to achieve that goal. - The instructor has been known to limit his/her availability. Students often report they may set a date to complete a make-up test or quiz, or to see a grade, and are greeted by a locked door and a dark room. An instructor should always keep up with his/her appointments and help students when necessary. - The instructor's system of grading homework does not facilitate whether a student truly completes the homework. If the instructor simply looks at the number on top of a piece of paper and takes it for a grade, students can continue to give themselves free one hundreds throughout the year and not do the work. The only person harmed by this is the student. If there is no way to get those students at risk of failing the class to prepare for the quizzes and tests, then those students cannot be expected to do well. - An interesting correlation to note that ties into the previous grievance is that, even if a student completes the entire homework assignment, there are often quiz questions that go unaddressed by both instructor and homework. If there isn't any attention drawn to these beforehand, then the instructor isn't always adequately preparing students for benchmarks to the best of his/her ability. - Unfortunately, many students have come to the conclusion that Pre-AP Precalculus at MHS exercises memorization more than it does math, due to the formulaic methods by which some students must follow notes and infer the answers to their own questions to fill in the holes of explanation left by the instructor.

This petition is not a call to action, and it is not drafted in disrespect for the Pre-AP Precalculus administration. A petition is traditionally defined as a formal written request, typically one signed by many people, appealing to authority with respect to a particular cause. This petition does adhere to that standard, but not in the way one might initially assume. The students, they are the authority being appealed to. The request is that those students (presumably whomever may be reading this at this very moment) consider the petition and put down their names if they are equally concerned. Let it be clear that no personal characteristics of the instructor are under attack. In fact, many students will often speak in testimony of the kind heart and warmness of the Pre-AP Precalculus administrator(s). The point to be made here is that many Pre-AP Precalculus students at MHS are not getting the thoroughness they need to succeed in math, and as well are not being represented as accurately as can be by the grades received on various assignments.

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