Is "I don't care what you did in [previous grades]" unfair to those with a clean track record?

I don't know why it came to mind recently, but I was thinking about something my high school Canadian History teacher said on the first day of class.

​

"I don't care what you did in junior high, only what you do in my class."

​

It felt so unfair to those of us who were actually well behaved in junior high, at least compared to our classmates. What happens if someone is ill behaved throughout elementary, and throughout junior high, but is squeaky clean in senior high? Would they be treated like a better person than someone who was well behaved throughout elementary, and throughout junior high, but had a few behavioural slip-ups in senior high?

​

For the record, I feel a similar way about young offender leniency; it's just that in practice teenagers sometimes get charged as adults anyway, so the real issue isn't young offender leniency; which is a charade anyway; so much as the biases influencing whether people decide to apply it or not. But I'm not sure whether it was such a charade on the teacher's part.

​

Incidentally, I came to be perceived by her and other teachers as one of the better-behaved students anyway, but my initial reaction to the "don't care what you did in junior high" remark carried through all the same. It's the principle of the matter; I shouldn't let how I feel about it depend on whether or not I happen to be a benefactor thereof.

Submitted August 10, 2023 at 02:21PM by Planet_Breezy https://ift.tt/pHwTIix