During her junior year a high achieving student signs up for three advanced placement courses, in addition to the honor sections she has in every other subject and is a member of the JROTC. She is studying for SATs and agonizing over college applications. She realizes during the first week of her senior year that she is overwhelmed, and that she cannot cope with all the work. She wants to drop one of her AP courses but is told "Tough, you asked for it, now you keep it." The girl is crying all the time.
Question: Should she be allowed to drop or must she live with this program until June? Should she be allowed to change her mind?
I just read an IKEA ad that promised you could try a mattress for 60 days and then return it if it wasn't right for you. Should kids have rights similar to this?
Question: Should she be allowed to drop or must she live with this program until June? Should she be allowed to change her mind?
I just read an IKEA ad that promised you could try a mattress for 60 days and then return it if it wasn't right for you. Should kids have rights similar to this?
10 comments:
This sounds like a "verbal abuse" issue. Call OSI...except if it was an administrator who told the girl that.
That doesn't make any sense. Why would you not let the poor kid drop a course?
that poor baby! why would the powers that be want to set her up for failure, instead of supporting her!?
Which guidance god/goddess is abusing this poor child who should get all the support she needs? AP is optional, not required. Her parent or guardian has to come to the school and scream at them. Then they will do what the child needs.
Happy ending--someone in the school, with power helped the girl drop the course she wanted to drop and over ride the abusive person's decision.
Morale of the story: You just have to know who to go to when there is a problem. I'm glad I saw her crying and directed her to just that person.
Klein has been banging away at increasing the numbers of students who take AP classes, especially minorities. Maybe AP class numbers are used to calculate administration bonus packages.
Maybe, but an administrator helped her out. I just sent that administrator a big thank you note.
I'm so glad it worked out for her...bless her for coming to you... who can be trusted to tell her who she should see...and bless you, too...you, are what my grandpa would call 'good people'!!!
I can't believe that "the powers that be" or counselor or whoever couldn't look at the student herself and make the right decision. She didn't sound like some whiney-ass kid who fluffs off school and is known for taking the easy way out...
Our school "doesn't allow" changing classes once school begins. I think that this is mainly because changing one course can mean re-shuffling your whole schedule, which is disruptive for everyone once school starts. My son luckily realized just based on the summer homework that he needed out of AP US History. (He's a junior, and has 2 other AP classes, plus honors in everything else.) He apparently got the "last" remaining slot in Honors US history when he asked to switch over the summer. So I don't know what would have happened if he'd asked later, or even once school started. So I guess I'd say that kids should absolutely be able to change to a different level of a class when necessary, but should also be expected to try to forsee what's reasonable so as to minimize the need for changes once school begins.
What I don't understand is this...why aren't guidance counselors "counseling" their students when they're scheduling??? Why aren't parents (assuming they have to sign off on their kids' schedules as they do in my school) questioning the counselors and kids' choices when they take all honors and AP classes? For many kids...it's too much, yet they don't realize until it's too late. There are a select few who can handle it, but maybe counselors / parents should reevaluate kids' schedules before classes begin, so that students aren't overwhelmed with the amount of work they have to do.
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