John Zarker was a wee bit more than frightened. But he didn’t exactly know what else…
[spoiler]What is a synonym of frightened:
A. Perturbed
B. Exonerated
C. Abrogated
D. Enervated[/spoiler]
He filled in B and frowned. It was finals week over the country, where their progress was checked by an annual standardized test. As one could probably guess, cheating was rampant.
It was always a cycle, people would cheat, the teachers would find a way to prevent that, and the students would find another way to cheat. It was almost a black market.
He wasn’t really a cheater, though. He had just forgotten to study the night before. Like that would be a good excuse, he mused.
It’s only for my own good, he thought as he looked over at his neighbor’s paper.
[hr]“And I expect you to be severely reprimanded for this behavior,” his teacher said an hour later, “academic dishonesty is a serious breach of citizenship.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” Zarker responded sharply.
“Well, you certainly have cheek. Why don’t you sit here and grade these tests?”
That was how Zarker spent his afternoon: languishing at the teacher’s desk grading tests by hand and looking up the answers. The teacher had purposely not told him there was a machine in the teacher’s lounge which would grade them mechanically.
Needless to say, Zarker was not in a good mood when he came home.
[hr]It was only a few years later that Zarker had another encounter. He noticed someone was cheating off of his paper, and he had a flashback to that day in the summer a few years ago…
After the class was over, he went up to his teacher and reported the student.
[hr]“Really?” Zarker’s friend George Williamsen asked.
They had both recently graduated and were looking for jobs. Williamsen wanted to be a politician and was surprised when Zarker told him what he wanted to do.
“You want to be a teacher!” Williamsen shouted with surprise.
All Zarker could do was shrug.
[hr]After 15 years of teaching, Zarker had been promoted to superintendent, and never expected the robo call he was about to receive.
"Hello, you have been nominated as the Minister of Education. Please show up for the interview at 1600 hours next Tuesday.
[hr]“Good morning, this is the hearing to confirm Minister of Education nominee John Zarker.” Droned on the Senate Chairperson.
The questions came rolling on and on until Senator McLocke asked a question. “As a student, did you ever engage in academic dishonesty?”
Zarker had a flashback to that day all those years ago, and replied, “I can’t pretend that I haven’t.”
McLocke smirked a bit, and then asked, “What message does it send if the Minister of Education, the person who sets the example for academics, has engaged in academic dishonesty?”
Zarker bit back a snappy response about McLocke and corruption. “Senator, like most people, I learn from my mistakes. Just a few years later, I reported someone who tried to cheat. So I don’t how one can twist the facts like that.”
Another senator asked a question, and the hearing went by.
[hr]Zarker walked out of the Legislative building and caught his friend Williamsen leaning on one of the columns.
“Hey,” Zarker said to him. “I see you got your job.”
“Yeah…” Williamsen said, raising his head. "This badge is nice. But I’ve heard bad things about the job.
It was something called a “WA Ambassador,” and no one knew what the badge was for, or what ‘WA’ stood for.
“Good luck, George,” Zarker said. “By the way, what did you do to get me the job?”
“Oh, don’t point to me!” Williamsen replied. “You did it all by yourself.”
He leaned in and smirked. “And I may have suggested your name for the list.”
All Zarker could do was laugh, like he laughed with Williamsen in the old days.
[hr]
“Good morning,” Zarker said in a speech the next week.
“As Minister of Education, I will be dedicated to many things, and one of the things that is plaguing our country at the moment is academic dishonesty as standardized tests are underway. I am not frightened nor perturbed in any way to fight it. You see, academic dishonesty…”