“Blah, blah, blah, blah!” my teacher told me when I 
asked him for help. He might as well have been a grown-
up on the Peanuts Holiday Special, because I didn’t 
understand a single word he was saying! I’m not a bad 
student, but all too often I have been in the 
frustrating situation where a teacher refuses to help 
me in some subject and expects me to know what to do 
from my own knowledge. A teacher expects me to already 
know the information; but what would I be doing in his 
class, then? Not only myself, but most of my friends 
at school have had the same experience.
So I decided to write an article about this issue--
anonymously, so if teachers read it, they won’t know 
it’s me. I don’t want to make teachers look bad, 
because they’re not all the same. 
Just to make sure I wasn’t the only one with this 
problem, I decided to survey 30 students to find out 
what they thought. I asked them questions about how 
important grades are for them and why. I asked if they 
were getting the help they needed from their teachers, 
and what more their teachers could do for them. I was 
glad to find out that Watsonville High has teachers 
that are willing to help! And sad to hear I wasn’t the 
only one to have found myself in this frustrating 
situation.
All the students that I surveyed said that getting 
good grades is important to them mainly because they 
know that good grades are the only way they’ll get 
accepted to a college of their choice, get a good job 
or career someday and have a good future. The majority 
of them also said that they are trying to get good 
grades, especially in the classes that they are having 
a hard time in. Students agreed that it’s the subject, 
the grading policy, the homework, or simply the 
teaching style that makes some classes harder than 
they need to be. One student hates it when teachers 
are “literally not organized.” 
Most of the students surveyed go to their teachers for 
help… who else can they go to?! And though there are 
teachers that are happy to help, students are all too 
often reminded that teaching is just another job.
Some teachers act impatient when students ask for help 
during break time. They say they are angry because 
students only want the answers. Maybe it’s because a 
student is asking them to be teachers and not workers. 
Most who ask for help want to learn the material step 
by step, so that they are in better shape for the 
test. One student even said that teachers will say, “ 
I’ll help you in a minute, meaning 30 minutes, if 
you’re lucky.”
It’s an entirely different story at home. Some 
students try to do work on their own. Those who don’t 
usually feel comfortable asking their teachers for 
help will go to their friends or a family member 
instead. But how much help can moms and dads with an 
average primary-level education really give? 
I’m glad to say that students reported that at least 
some of their teachers have shown interest in helping 
them succeed. 
“ I think that most [teachers] do care, because it 
makes them happy to see that you are on the right 
pathway to being successful,” said one student. 
Although that pathway may be clear to us all, some of 
us have cars, others bicycles, and some of us are just 
walking. When teachers move too fast during a lecture, 
they shouldn’t forget that all students learn at a 
different pace.