| “ | And, Mr. Frond, you're a three. On a good day. | ” |
"Touch of Eval(uations)" is the eleventh episode in Season 12, being the two-hundred-and-twenty-seventh episode overall.
Plot[]
Louise realizes that Mr. Frond's new plan of students evaluating their teachers has shifted the balance of power at school from teacher to kid. Meanwhile, Bob and Linda discover that they don't agree on where they want their final resting place to be.
Synopsis[]
One morning at Wagstaff, the Belcher kids are walking in and complaining about how tiring school is, when they notice the teachers all being nice, first Mr. Grant handing out fresh baked treats, then Ms. Jacobson complimenting Tina’s hair and excusing her for not doing a pipe cleaner model, and Mr. DeSanto and Coach Blevins being nice to other students, to their confusion. Louise is even more confused when Ms. LaBonz greets her before class.
Mort walks into the restaurant for decaf coffee, having had to deal with a funeral where the deceased left no will and everyone started fighting over his possessions. Teddy notes how awful it is to die without (or even with) a will, and tells Bob he will get Teddy’s ten boxes of “Arrowheads.” Mort asks the Belchers, who admit they do not have a will.
LaBonz hands out a “pop quiz” to the students and tells them that they will get an “A” if they fill every answer with “5”, despite them noticing that it is anonymous. Just then, Frond comes over the PA, and says they have been given teacher evaluation forms, in a process he calls “Eval-You-Great”. The evaluation forms are due to Frond at the end of the day, and the teacher with the best score will be assigned reserved parking in the main lot, along with again being anonymous. Louise points out how in the past that LaBonz has punished and scolded her for her pranks and antics (such as ordering pizza in class, stapling Andy and Ollie to a bulletin board, and so on), and also brings up how LaBonz gave her a “C” for turning a cotton ball in a white shoe box as a “polar bear in the snow”. As other students point out how she insults them as well, LaBonz laments.
In the eighth grade classroom, the students grill Ms. Jacobson about how they could write bad reviews for her. In the sixth grade classroom, Ms. Twitchell is nervous and wants to students to write good reviews so she can park in the main lot. Ms. LaBonz explains on the chalkboard how she has to park in the unsaved overflow lot four blocks away from the school and across the train tracks, and asks them to be generous. After Rudy asks for a bathroom pass and gets one instead of being told to bite on an eraser by LaBonz as per usual, Louise tells Rudy not to finish the evaluation form first, and tells the class that the second they put the pencils down, the teachers will stop being nice. She stands on her chair and proclaims, as the evaluations are not due until the end of the day, the students dictate what happens, and the teachers will have to agree to it.
Louise walks through the halls telling students not to turn in the evaluations until the end of the day. After seeing Coach Blevins agree to Rudy’s request that PE be light stretching instead of runs, Mr. Frond comments how ridiculous it is that teachers should be groveling for good scores by letting the students run riot, while Ms. LaBonz points out that it is all his fault and threatens him. Tina tells Louise she is unsure about taking advantage of the system and that the point was constructive feedback for the teachers to improve with, but Louise dismisses her concerns.
At the restaurant, Linda tells Bob maybe they should finally do the end-of-life planning, to Bob’s reluctance. Mort offers to help by writing it out on a napkin for a lawyer to type out later. After a minute, however, they have already gone through the distribution of assets, with Linda noting how poor they are, though Teddy is happy that he will get any food left in their fridge. Mort moves onto final disposition of remains, but Bob wants to be buried while Linda wants them to be cremated. As they cannot decide, Mort offers to get some brochures on each option.
Back at Wagstaff, the students continue to hold power, with Tammy and Jocelyn hosting a nervous Mr. Grant on the WSN show to get him to approve their segment ideas so he can get a spot in the main lot. Jimmy Jr and Zeke disturb the eighth grade class with dancing, Gene writes “poop” on a chalkboard, and Louise chews as many pieces of gum as she wants as Ms. LaBonz’s eye twitches. At lunch, as the kids eat lunch sitting on the tables, Louise is still not satisfied, annoyed at the C grade given for the polar bear project (even though, as Tina points out, she spent a minute on it), and believes that LaBonz has it out for her, as Tina tries to defend that teachers are people.
At the restaurant, Bob is reading a brochure on a burial plot under an oak tree on a hill, believing it would be a nice “forever picnic” spot, but Linda says that worms would be having the picnic, she could be buried alive in a deep sleep, and her fear that cemeteries could be haunted (or worse, their graves becomes a hangout spot for goth punks to make out and smoke on Halloween), as well as their kids not being the type to get dressed up for cemeteries. Linda shows her own favorite brochure, to have their ashes scattered by sea or by airplane, but Bob points out how the kids cannot go “everywhere” to see them, Linda offers that they be scattered on the couch. The two continue to argue.
At the end of the day, students are filing out of the fourth grade classroom and putting their evaluations in a box, to LaBonz’s relief. But Louise still stays, and says that the diorama grade felt personal, and tells LaBonz to open up her grade book to bump Louise’s grade up to a B-minus. But LaBonz refuses, and accidentally admits that if it were another kid then she would have bumped up the grade, and Louise begins to give a low score. LaBonz tries to stop her, bringing up how Louise phones everything in, but Louise gives all “1’s” and a long comment about how LaBonz is so sad.
Louise finds Frond in the hall and gives her evaluation personally, which Frond puts in his zipped messenger bag that is tied to his wrist. In a few minutes, he and Principal Spoors will go over the evaluations together, and Frond will provide “compassionate counseling” to any teachers that get bad scores. At Tina’s locker, she says she gave Jacobson all fives, and Gene did the same for Twitchell. Louise however goes into detail of her “scorching” review, even making a copy of it to put on her room wall, even as Tina says she may have gone too far, but Louise feels she has stood up to the powerful LaBonz, and thinks that LaBonz will simply admit being bested. However, when Louise reads her evaluation out loud, about how burned-out, old, and boring LaBonz is, she imagines LaBonz getting hurt by it and storms off.
Back at the restaurant, Bob does not want to be back in Mort’s crematorium, and Linda suggests they do their own thing, but Bob doesn’t want to be alone for eternity and tries to make Linda jealous that his grave might find someone else. Mr. Fischoeder arrives to collect the rent, and think the cemetery brochures are a plan for Bob to die to get out of paying the rent. he explains how his remain will go: he will be part of a “consortium of fun and flirty dead people” who will have their remains tossed into an active volcano, but refuses when Teddy and Linda want to join.
Louise doing A-minus work.
Louise finds Ms. LaBonz still in the classroom, tying up sneakers so she can trek to her car for nicotine gum before talking to Frond. As Louise tries to take her cotton ball diorama home, LaBonz says that what she was trying to say earlier about the reason for Louise’s crummy grade on said diorama, was because she thinks Louise is very bright, to the latter’s surprise. But LaBonz also says that Louise doesn’t work hard and needs motivation, which LaBonz finds best with Louise’s anger and vengeance; Louise’s next assignment after that, an oral presentation on Latvia, was a solid A-minus.
Louise denies that she worked harder on the presentation, but is still shocked after LaBonz leaves that her teacher made her get an A-minus as Gene and Tina find her. Louise realizes that LaBonza and the teachers are in fact people, and more shocked to learn that she helped Gene and Tina out of being even worse students than they are now. The three look out a window to see LaBonz trudge back to the overflow lot, Louise realizes they need to get the evaluation back. The trio find Mr. Frond, who refuses to let them have the evolution out of his messenger bag as the teachers stand outside his office. Louise tries get Gene and Tina to distract him as she picks through the bag, but is unable to as Frond first takes Blevins into his office.
At the restaurant, Mort comes back and Linda admits they won’t get to a decision today, while Bob says that when they’re gone, he just wants them to be together, so they can do her ash-scattering idea or volcano or whatever else she wants. She is touched by this and even is open to the cemetery idea. Mort shows them the prices for two grave plots, which is far outside of their price range, and Teddy suggests burying them in his backyard. Mort points out it is illegal, and Linda says they are joking, but Mort sees her wink at Bob.
Blevins leaves Frond’s office, and brings in LaBonz while shutting Louise out. Louise realizes that there is a way to get her message in the room. As Frond and LaBonz sit in his office, with Frond beginning Louise’s comment, Louise comes over the PA system as “an anonymous student with an updated evaluation”. Accompanied by Gene and Tina in the announcements booth, she says that the evaluation got out there by mistake, and that while Ms. LaBonz is “grizzled and grumpy”, deep down she is soft and brings out the best in her students and give her “across the board sixes.” LaBonz is brought to tears, while Tina and Gene do not turn the mic off and reveal themselves.
The next day, the kids are walking to school and take a shortcut through the main parking lot, with Louise afraid to face LaBonz and worried her intercom evolution even worked. Just then, Ms LaBonz drives up and parks in the main lot. She explains that Spoors heard the evaluation and bumped up her parking spot, and thanks Louise. The two try and go back to normal by talking of how neither will be paying attention and so on while subtly being friendly, while Tina notes they will miss the bell as they keep talking.
Videos[]
External links[]
- "Touch of Eval(uations)" on IMDb
- "Touch of Eval(uations)" press release via The Futon Critic
- "Touch of Eval(uations)" script via Springfield! Springfield!