Posted on 05/23/2007 2:59:55 PM PDT by george76
High schools will label any course “AP” even if it bears no resemblance to the College Board’s AP course/exam requirements. It has gotten so bad that the College Board recently began an audit process:
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/46361.html
“In November 2007, the College Board will publish on the Web a ledger for colleges, universities, and the public that lists the courses authorized to use the “AP” designation at each school.”
I’m sure that the high schools are “shocked” to find out that learning how to put a condom on a banana or watching Al Gore’s propaganda didn’t prepare the kids for Calculus 101...
Maxwell’s article is quite sad.Stillman College sounds like a typical ghetto high school rather than a four year institution of higher learning.I have to think that at higher level colleges like Howard,Fisk and Morehouse that standards are much stricter.
Yet from my own experience in our school systems,these young black kids are being shorchanged by the system and then doing more damage by shortchanging themselves.Example-I’m on the Westside today about One O’Clock or so and see dozens of kids on the corner just “chopping it up”.Lunch officially ended 15 minutes earlier.Two security guards are sitting across the street having a smoke.No administrators are out there cajoling the kids back to class.Two weeks ago when I was over there students would walk in an out of class at will.Anytime during every period you would look out your door and see the hallway filled with small groups and individuals cutting class.
They would never let these antics go on at a white school.Black kids have to own up to their part in letting this nonsense continue.Yet where are the ADULTS who condone and enable this behavior?Are they THAT lax in doing their jobs?
When I read Maxwell’s articles, I was sort of reminded of the lax attitude that was taken toward Cho (the VaTech killer.) I had read articles that said teachers gave him A’s because they were afraid of him. I didn’t get the impression that teachers were afraid of the kid’s at Stillman, but just that they didn’t see any “hope” of changing things, so they were just passing them, in order to move them out of their classes.
Its truly sad how supposedly responsible adults take the easy way out.They are only handicapping these kids later in life.
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It may be the only way to get a decent education.
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My kids aren’t geniuses either. They too were homeschooled to the 9th grade.
They entered community college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished all general college requirements and Calculus III by the age of 15. The two younger earned B.S. degrees in mathematics at the age of 18. The older of these two recently finished a masters degree in math at the age of 20.
The oldest took a different trajectory. He is a nationally and internationally ranked athlete. He has traveled worldwide. He attended a business college in the evening and majored in accounting. At the age of 19 he took off two years to assist our church in Eastern Europe and returned home fluent in Russian. He is again training in his sport and will finish his accounting degree at the same age as his contemporaries.
Again...my kids are **normal**!
It is institutionalized children ( especially those in government schools) who are artificially and wrongfully retarded in their educational and social development.
Uh..oh...I just criticized the government schools! There will be some nit wit teacher ( or parent who uses the schools) who will then claim that I have **personally** insulted them.
She is not unusual. Many, many kids in the NoVa area will have double-digit AP's.
Very true - but the AP course itself is worthless to the college unless the student takes and scores a certain mark on the exam. The colleges are uninterested in the class - they are quite interested in the score. My daughter’s 5 in World History will give her credit for Hist 101 and allow her to skip Hist 102 and take another elective. But then, her US History (assuming she gets a 5) will give her credit for the 102 and leave her with no history requirements for college. She can then take those 6 hours that are freed up and use it to swing a double major. It’ll be interesting to see her scores in July, and then the planning begins
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Yes, they are that lax.
What these “ADULTS” are doing is raising feral children. It is almost as abusive as locking a kid in a closet for years on end. These so-called “students” ( I use that term loosely) are educationally, socially, and emotionally retarded. “ADULTS” in their government schools have done this to them.
It is child abuse. It is also abusive for any parent to send their child into an environment like this.
Uh..oh! I have just criticized the government schools. Some nitwit of a teacher or parent will now post that I have **personally** insulted them, and post that I have **personally** called them a child abuser.
Those usually aren't the same people. In my (albeit limited) experience, the AP-heavy kids were prepared to do at least acceptably at college. It's the ones who squeak through without AP classes (which are optional) that aren't well prepared.
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They can found in business, math, engineering, and the **hard** sciences.
Plus, remember that our society tells kids that you must go to college to be successful, so many 18 year olds go to college, not because they want to, but because it is expected. Meanwhile, other kids go into a service industry such as HVAC, auto mechanics, plumbing, or electricity and end up making significantly more money than those who drop out of college and serve french fries.
Oh, please. Homeschooling works well for some kids, poorly for others. The homeschooled kids I knew were not especially well prepared for college either.
You do your cause no good by maligning other educational options. You would do better to demonstrate the benefits of homeschooling.
Care to restate that statement Brian?
You do your cause no good by maligning other educational options.
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Sorry! You will never get me to agree that institutionalizing children is a good idea. ( especially in government indoctrination camps.)
Yes,,,some unfortunate children will need institutionalized settings for their education. This is really a shame. We need orphanages too, but no one is suggesting that it is the best way to raise up an educationally, socially, and emotionally secure adult.
As the superiority of homeschooling continues to be evident, parents will need to justify to the community exactly why their child must be warehoused.
I teach in an English department, and you’d be surprised at how many of us are actually conservative and Christian.
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I wish my children had had the opportunity to be in these classrooms.
My kids were admitted to college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13, so I had more involvement in their college education than at youths of usual age. I had full access to their reading assignments and syllabus. Also, the children taped and transcribed their lectures so that my husband and I could review spelling, reinforce concepts, and correct misunderstandings.
I was appalled!
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