CHAPTER SUMMARY AND NOTES

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - The Algebraic Equation

I.

Summary

This section focuses on the players of Carter High School in Dallas, Permian’s next opponent - specifically Gary Edwards and Derric Evans. Gary calls the life they experience in high school a paradise. There are no rules for football players. They don’t have to stay in class, he often receives the answer sheets for tests, or they don’t have to take a test at all. There also is no homework and along with his friend and teammate, Derric Evans, he has even left class to have sex with a sophomore girl. If this lack of rules isn’t enough to keep them playing football, the unusual grading policy will. It is called the School Improvement Plan and under it, equal weight is given to class participation, homework, weekly tests, and final exams. Since class participation is so difficult to quantify strictly, it is possible to fail every weekly test as well as the final exam and still pass. Of course, many teachers believe that this is just a sneaky way to keep all the football players eligible, but it is passed by the school board and promptly implemented. Then, something unforeseen happens and by the time it is over, everyone knows the name Gary Edwards and the issue of his algebra grade.

II.

Summary

One teacher at Carter High doesn’t pay homage to the Carter Cowboys. His name is Will Bates, and he has a notoriously high failure rate. He is intent in not turning his class into a mill where everyone passes regardless of how much or how little they know. Edwards struggles in Bates’ class with test scores of 40, 60, 60, and 35. Then, one day he cuts Bates’ class to watch game films. That becomes a real problem about whether he should receive a zero for class participation and how that will affect his average. He must have a 70 to be eligible for football. As a result, with a little more than a week to go to the end of the grading period, the principal, C.C. Rousseau, transfers Gary out of Bates’ class. What’s more, he reports Bates, who has a doctorate and 35 years teaching experience, to the school administration for not being in compliance with the School Improvement Plan. As for Gary, in his new class, because he enters so late, he receives no grades for class participation (which no one seems to mind), passes his six week exam with an 80 and passes the class with a 72 average. All of this might have just passed away quietly, until the anonymous telephone call to state investigators.

All the caller said was, “Take a look at Gary Edwards’ algebra grade. See how it was calculated.” If it is determined, after an investigation, that Gary Edwards actually failed the class, every game he played in would be forfeit, and they will no longer be eligible for the playoffs. The caller is found to be exactly right. Gary’s grade is actually 68.75. He has failed algebra, he is ineligible to play, and Carter is out of the playoffs. Powerful black lawyers in the city begin to look into the problem just when the principal decides to change Gary’s grade. In Will Bates’ grade book, an NC was recorded when..........

Notes

This chapter is the ultimate example of the importance of high school football in Texas. If it takes cheating, court cases, or insistence on the presence of racism, football will live on. In the midst of this madness, there is no recognition of the importance of education and.........

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