I think I'm going to have to "fight city hall"

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Or at least the school administration

My daughter is a senior in high school. Through the summer she worked up an idea for an Independent Study project for one of her class periods this year. The teacher she was going to work with helped her refine her plan and seemed to be willing to oversee the project. Then when school started she was told she couldn’t do it for credit. She has permission to be in the media center for that class period and to do the work she planned to do, she just can’t get credit for it. They did “compromise” by telling her she could use that for enrichment (basically extra credit) for her AP World History class, which is with the same teacher. The thing is, she leads the class and sets the curve most of the time anyway, so extra credit isn’t really something she needs. And a little extra credit for a year’s worth of work?

Her dad and I were pretty angry when she told us all this, and she reminded us that we’ve always told her that it’s the work that counts, not the grade. Which is true. She’s in school to get an education, not a GPA. So she’s doing the project anyway, just for the learning.

The thing is, they told her that there have been problems with IS situations in the past, with kids not doing the work but getting credit anyway. So it bugs me that she’s being deprived based on other people’s actions. And it seems that they’re casting aspersions on both her and the teacher, by suggesting they would do that.

They’ve also said they don’t have any parameters set for IS projects, but it seems that the thing to do would be to set some, rather than arbitrarily denying her this opportunity.

The other reason seems to be that they can’t let her do it if they turn other students down. Can’t make an exception for one kid, don’t you know. But they are making an exception anyway, by letting her use a class period to be in the media center unsupervised. And, as I told the counselor, if you have exceptional students, you need to make exceptions.

So I guess I’m going to have to push this a bit, and try to get them to change their minds. I plan to use the arguments I’ve listed here, and remind them that they make a huge effort to recognize student achievement. But they’ve taken one of their highest achievers, one of the best representatives of the school, and discouraged her efforts to achieve even more. They’ve tried to keep her from doing exactly what they keep saying they want their students to do, take responsibility for their own education.

Personally, I think the fact that she’s doing the project anyway says everything that needs to be said, but I don’t think they’ll see it that way.

I guess I just needed to get this off my chest, but any comments or advice (or commiseration) would be welcome.

Wish me luck.

2

If the school doesn’t normally allow Independant Study courses for credit, why should your daughter be an exception? Yes, I know you say she’s an exceptional student, but they have a point - things like IS are hard to quantify, and subjective grading makes it difficult to grade the next student. Just because you feel an exception should be made for your kid doesn’t mean that’s so. Every parent thinks their precious Johnny or Janey is special. Your school is in the business of educating the community’s youth, not just your child. They shouldn’t have to jump through hoops because Mommy and Daddy think their kid is somehow superior to every other child in the school system.

StG

3

I am in full agreement with StGermain.

I do think it’s super that your daughter is choosing to do the project even though she won’t be graded, though. So good on you for teaching her that education (rather than just passing enough to get the hell out of there) is why school is important.

4

They say you can’t fight city hall, but I’ve never heard it said you can’t fight a school administration. Just be sure that the fight is actually worth the trouble.

5

Bring brass knuckles. :stuck_out_tongue:

6

The thing is, they have allowed IS for credit every year until this one. So it was logical to think they would again. There was no indication of a problem until she talked to her counselor about her schedule and was told she couldn’t do it. The other part of the situation is that she has run out of classes to take, unless she wants to piddle away a class period. The only graduation requirement she hasn’t met is one year of gym (they require four). She has taken all the AP classes they offer, with the exception of AP Calc, and she’s taking AP Stats instead. Would they really rather she piddle away a class hour sitting through a class she doesn’t need, doesn’t want, and is way below her abilities, just so she can be like all the other kids?

And do you really think schools should never make an exception for anybody? Should just expect every student to fit the same average mold? One size fits all? Or is it just the gifted kids who should have to fend for themselves? My mom used to do an occasional catalogue order from Sears as “take what you get”. I don’t think education works very well that way.

7

The reason that they offered for doing away with IS for credit is the hammer with which you should be hitting. They took it away because some kids were cheating, rather than offer concrete guidelines for what constitutes credit-worthy IS work, IOW they took the easy way out. Having done so, they’ve limited opportunities for your child. That’s not acceptable. If they’re going to do that for such a craven reason, then they need to make it possible for her to seek other enhancement opportunities. If that ends up being the case (and I fear it will because school administrations are by nature craven) look into the feasibility of her arranging her schedule so that she can take a class of interest at a local college.

8

thirdwarning - They have made accomodations to gifted students by having classes of varying difficulty, AP classes, that sort of thing. I don’t think they need to rewrite the curriculum just for her. Now, if they previously had the class and found it too difficult to manage, they might make an exception, but I wouldn’t count on it. They cut it for a reason.

StG

9

So, just out of curiosity, got any ideas? What should she be doing during the otherwise useless class period?

10

How about for folks in past years?

Seems to me like instead of trying to specifically fix a problem they removed the entire offending body.

11

thirdwarning - Could she take the AP Calc? I know she’s got AP Stat, but can she take both? Or could she spend the time tutoring kids that need help? I’d think that would look good to colleges and would get some great recommendations from teachers.

iampunha - I’d look at it as an experiment they tried which failed, so they eliminated it. Should they have to have a Latin class because two students a year might want to take it? Or perhaps an art class in metal sculpture because they have an artistic student who wants to learn it? What about allowing the child that likes ballet to dance during the assigned PE class and get her grade from that?

I’m not saying that intellectual curiousity is a bad thing, but I am saying that just because there’s a small interest doesn’t mean the schools should be expected to cater to every whim.

StG

12

Okay, valid points. I still disagree:)

I would support (and as a future teacher, I’m not doing this from the comfort of m living room, so to speak) an effort to encourage students to enrich them in ways that go beyond the standard curriculum. Where I went to high school there was one (1) student who wanted to take Greek. We had teachers who were able and one of them volunteered. Granted, this was a small school, but it wasn’t approached from an extra-curricular angle but from a valid language angle.

I would frankly be more worried about bodily injury from a metal sculpture class (esp. welding) than much of any other angle. But then my thinking is that if you have students who are showing enthusiasm in an area of academia, it helps you far more than it hurts you if you don’t try to stifle their independent action. True, you might be burned. That’s why I think you look around at folks who have successful IS or similar programs and see what they’re doing - and what they aren’t - and try and see if you can’t piggy-back off them.

I would also support ballet as an alternative to PE. My junior year of high school, we had a guy who had a legitimate shot at competing seriously in college (squash, incidentally). He drew up a program that would cost the school nothing but would allow him to pursue a more rigorous squash program - and this not in the winter but the fall semester. If memory serves he was granted this option. (Help in understanding this particular aspect might include the fact that some after-school activity, usually an athletic pursuit, was required for all students.)

My general feeling is that when you have a responsible and intelligent student who wants to pursue something of academic worth that is not included included in the curriculum, and if she has fulfilled her other obligations (part of that would include some plan for completing that last year of PE, which in this case IMO is more a concession than anything else, since I don’t think all that highly of phys. ed. reqs), then why discourage independent study? It will certainly teach her enough about herself - how well she budgets time, how well she plans, how well she locates and uses resources, etc. That’s of course in addition to the actual subject matter. I think it would be an excellent preparation for 300- and 400-level classes in college, not to mention internships and the more self-led classes.

13

iampunha - The ballet I can sort of see, but most PE teachers wouldn’t know enough about ballet to give them an accurate assesment, plus part of PE (a subject I hated) is teamwork, I think. So having one student (or a whole classful of students) off doing their own thing would defeat that purpose. Is squash the game that is played with those sticks with a net on it and you throw a ball to one another? Or maybe that’s field hockey.

I was fortunate enough to attend a private (Catholic) elementary and junior high school. When it was evident that I was grades ahead in certain classes they bumped me up into the appropriate grade for that class. For example, in third grade I was in the highest 8th grade Reading and English classes and the fifth grade Science class. Later, when I outgrew those classes, I did some self-study. When I entered public school I wasn’t given those options. I took A/P classes and mainly studied outside interests on my own. I guess I was always taught to make the best of what you’re given. Expecting special treatment wasn’t an option. Maybe that’s part of being one of five kids and the daughter of a teacher.

StG

14

Most old-school PE teachers, or most teachers being churned out these days? I am not totally aware of the current teacher ed program regarding phys. ed. teachers but I’d be surprised if part of it didn’t focus on a variety of activities to aid in lesson plans and such.

I guess I missed the part of dodgeball, the game that aspires to be social darwinism, that involves teamwork - apart, of course, from the big kids ganging up on everyone else;)

Beside that, there are plenty of other places for a person to pick up teamwork than a time when you have balls being flun at your head.

I think you’re thinking of lacrosse. Squash is like racketball, sort of, or like tennis except it’s a much smaller field, no net, etc. Explaining it, especially since I don’t completely understand it myself, would take the better part of five paragraphs:) Check here.

I would be all for AP classes for the OP’s daughter if such a thing seemed like it would be beneficial in a non-trivial way. As is, it appears that same daughter has surpassed the AP curriculum and I don’t know that it’s appropriate for the school to effectively tell her she can’t get school credit for going further in the subject. You don’t often see that sort of independence, maturity or desire (in an academic arena, at least;)) in a teenager, and I think the school system is sending a poor message here.