Ask any teacher worth his/her grain of salt regarding the most difficult decision he or she has ever had to make and chances are the answer would be to pass or fail a student whose attitude and aptitude in class, ironically, would normally make this circumstance an open and shut case of giving a failing grade.
What really should be a black and white question is riddled with many factors to consider that negates such simplicity.

Whenever a member of this noble profession encounters the dilemma of failing a student on the basis of the computation of the academic marks earned as it really is, or of extending every consideration and accommodation that can be squeezed out of the already much abused and saturated heart, many extrinsic and intrinsic factors should be considered.

In passing a student despite of the same being already earmarked for failure, the possible repercussions are the implications of such magnanimity to the student, the teacher, and to the institution. There is the tendency of the student either to feel gratitude for the consideration while being and remaining humble with the knowledge that the concerned student did not earn that passing grade. There is also the possibility of arrogance in feeling that the student has put one over the teacher, capitalizing in the belief that he or she has outsmarted the teacher instead of dwelling in the thought of appreciating the act of consideration. Likewise, in failing a student deserving and doomed to fail because of academic delinquencies, the risk of the student losing the means of earning a college degree because of revocation of scholarship and study grants, or withdrawal of financial support by their parents, and the detriment to the school in losing clientele (ergo, losing income), because of such effects, are looming threats against the students’ development and the institution’s profit. Furthermore, to pass a failing student out of benevolence might create an image of the school as being a diploma mill, or in street parlance, an iskul bukol — a college that passes students for other reasons besides the valid one — a passing grade reflective of a clear showing of having learned and understood the subject matter.

The horns of this dilemma is truly the sword of Damocles that hangs over the teacher’s heads. Sala sa init, sala sa lamig, and yet they cannot have it both ways.

The best way is to take each situation differently by analyzing the existing conditions, dissecting actual factors, and anticipating the repercussions. Those in the teaching professions are kindred spirits. They should give each other the benefit of the doubt, not being both quick and harsh to judge acts and omissions of others, lest they sow seeds of disharmony among their brethren.