Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Putting A Damper On The Situation

A young man wanted to take an AP course, but due to budgetary restrictions, he could not get in.  Others, with higher grades beat him out for the few seats.  The child was persistent.  He wanted to do the course as an independent study and take the exam with everyone else.  The person in charge said "NO!  You were not good enough to get in the class.  What makes you think you are good enough to learn the course on your own?"  The boy persisted and explained how he planned on going about learning the material.  The person in charge said, "There is the door, use it!"  The boy hung his head and left.

I sat listening to this in disbelief.  Here is a child who wants to learn, who is motivated and ambitious and he is not only being stifled, he is being humiliated along the way.  I thought we were supposed to encourage academic pursuits, not throw buckets of ice water on them.  What is this world coming to.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

the world is going to a dark evil place. I am not a violent person however I would love to slap or ring that person's neck for speaking that way to the student. Under NO circumstances, no students need to be put down in that way.

A teacher said...

If I'm not mistaken, the College Board rules say that any student that wishes to take an AP exam must be given the opportunity to do so. I know that was true many years ago when my spouse took AP exams even though he did not take the classes in school. I was talking to a current AP teacher, and she said that that rule still remains in effect. Perhaps this student should look into that and force the hand of the person in charge. He won't get independent study credit, perhaps, but if he wants to take the test, he should be able to.

Pissedoffteacher said...

Defintely something to look into. Now, to track the boy down. I don't know his name so it won't be easy.

ChiTown Girl said...

ARGH!! This just makes me see red!! What an assbag! How do people like this always end up in charge?!?! What a horrible thing to do to a child!

Anonymous said...

To ChiTown Girl: I wish I can meet you..I like you do not mince words and cut to the chase.