chapter 4

At the end of the semester, the teacher said each group had to give a five-minute report in English. John, Jennifer, a “good” student, and Bob, a classmate with two little brothers, were assigned to the same team. On Wednesday night, John and Jennifer had a call to discuss the work on the report, but Bob couldn't join because of some tiny issue. Jennifer decided to wait for Bob, so they planned to start the call on Friday. John mentioned he had an English class that day, but Jennifer didn't hear him. At the same time Bob is watching a movie, he thinks that he just finished dealing with his sick brothers, so he doesn't need to do the report. On Friday night, John joined the call only to find out they had already finished the report. Because he didn't do any of the reporting, he decided to be the one to present it and then left the group call to play.

After the presentation, Jennifer complained to the teacher, saying she did all the work alone. The teacher asked John and Bob why they didn't contribute. John explained that it's not his fault; it's Jennifer's fault; she refused to work with him on Wednesday, and he had already told her about his English class. Jennifer accused him of making excuses, to which John responded that since the report was already done, there was nothing he could do. The teacher turned to Bob and didn't think he was wrong either; he explained that he couldn't work on the report because he had to take care of his sick little brothers. The teacher doesn’t believe in them; he told John and Bob to apologize to Jennifer, saying you all have your point, but no matter what reason, you two didn’t do this project. Teacher, tell them that before pointing fingers, take a moment to reflect on your own actions.