TEACHERS AND STUDENTS SEEK BACK-TO-SCHOOL COMPROMISES

Hurricane Isabel taught local students and teachers a physics lesson: It's hard to read in the dark.
Schools took note as they began reopening this past week. Accordingly, many have relaxed or even banned homework temporarily, including Mack Benn Jr. Elementary in Suffolk.
``That was an issue that did come up simply because some of our teachers don't have lights, and their children go here,'' Principal Ronald M. Leigh Jr. said. ``Not only that - it's pretty stressful right now.''
Thus schools walk several fine lines: acknowledging reality while trying to return to routines and keep up with academic demands.
Those demands mean some students are hustling to catch up on missed work.
Brittney A. Brink of Chesapeake's Great Bridge High had to cram for Friday tests in history and English. Jazmyn Artis of Portsmouth's I.C. Norcom High moaned, ``I have a week to learn what I'd have learned in two weeks.''
Margaret Bonay faced a math quiz on her return Thursday to Landstown High in Virginia Beach, and expected some 60 pages of reading - four times that of a typical night - in Advanced Placement History.
Still, she said, ``I know a lot of teachers are pretty lenient.''
``I pretty much backed off any major homework assignments,'' said Linda Lavender, a computer teacher at the Beach's Advanced Technology Center - home Internet access remains a problem for many students.
Private Norfolk Academy recommended no tests or quizzes, and to go easy on the take-home stuff. It also offered students use of its computers today. Exemptions were given from an art assignment to sketch something ``under bright light,'' said Sarah K. Johnson, a junior.
Norfolk principals reminded staff that it's not just students without power. Jeanne Kruger of Rosemont Middle e-mailed that ``both completing homework or grading it can be difficult by flashlight.''
Louis C. Page, principal of 1,200-student Norview Middle in Norfolk, charged teachers to move forward with patience, remembering that some students remain powerless or even homeless.
``In a school this size,'' he said, ``you have some children who were untouched and others who had severe situations.''