Italian teacher sparks controversy: Student receives unheard-of '‑1' grade for classroom chatter

The student, who is 12 years old, was found disrupting an English lesson. Despite the teacher reminding the student that his chatter was causing a distraction, the teacher proceeded to record the grade "-1" in the grade book. Upon learning about this, the student's mother began to question whether something serious had transpired in the classroom to warrant such an extreme grade, reports the newspaper.

"I have never seen anything like this," the student's mother stated, expressing her astonishment in a comment quoted by "La Stampa." She noted that the other student involved in the conversation was not penalized as severely.

Moreover, despite the unusually low grade, the mother was not called into the school, an action typically expected when a student receives such a noteworthy behavioral grade.

The mother expressed that she didn't immediately visit the school because she thought it would aggravate the situation. According to her, complaining would only reinforce her son's growing negative sentiment towards the school. Her son, she explained, doesn't enjoy school anymore and feels unappreciated.

She didn't hide her indignation about the teacher's decision, asking, "What is less than zero? A cosmic void assigned to a boy who's still growing?" In a conversation with the press, she said that a friendly principal from another school described such grading as "ludicrous."

The newspaper "La Stampa" documented the conclusion of this story, reporting that the grade of "-1" disappeared from the electronic grade book four days after it was initially provided.

The debate about this incident continues, with some opinions suggesting that the teacher's own performance should be evaluated.

The grading scale in Italy typically ranges from 1 to 10.