Crying for an A

I have long thought that in school anywhere, there is a great deal of manipulation going on, such as little kids doing anything for a sticker and participating in a fund raiser just for a crappy music player as a prize (most school fund prizes can be purchased at the nearest dollar store. Most of the controlling is done to the students by the teachers. But last week the tables were turned and it was the students who got the power to manipulate. My English teacher has a habit of assigning huge projects that determine most of our grade for the quarter. They are usually based on books we are reading in class. The book we are currently reading is called The Outsiders. For a grade that counted as 2 unit test grades, all we had to do was bring something we thought was cool and show it to the class and talk about it.
I think that most of the girls in my class were desparate for a grade or something because all the things they brought in were objects that they had recieved from a dead relative. Here's how most of the class went that day:
A girl would be called up to the front of the class to present her cool item. It would usually be a photograph of the relative. Their speech went a bit like this. "This is my uncle who...." and then they would cry and the teacher would comfort them and say "Its ok, you did good, why don't you sit down and take a rest. Don't worry you got an A."
As I recall it, the homework was to bring in something cool, not to bring in something that would make tissues look cool. Now these girls didn't even need to talk or do much of anything for a grade and yet they all got A's. This is just so unbelievably unfair that that when it was my turn to talk about what I had brought in (a book I'm writing) I took as long as I could to explain it, and I got an A. I did alot more work than those people who just had to cry and get the grade.
Even some boys brought in relics and didn't cry and got a lower grade than the ones who did cry. I don't think death is cool, and neither should anyone else, so why should these girls get a high grade? There was one girl who didn't even speak and ran out of the room sobbing, (She got an A+).
I was having a hard time trying not to laugh at these people, I had to bury my head in my hands to hide it. I knew it was all fake and I find it amazing that an adult wouldn't recognize it. For once the students controlled the teacher and got what they wanted in order to pass, and I think its pretty funny.

signed
MCR.Pappi

N.B. Pappi is Paul Nichols' nickname. It is a moniker placed

upon him by his cousin Alex, and it has been accepted by many.

-ed.