Posted on 05/08/2005 6:47:15 PM PDT by Born Conservative
BOW, N.H. - A decision to take Advanced Placement biology instead of gym will cost a Bow High School senior her diploma, but it won't keep her from going to college in the fall.
Though Isabel Gottlieb is a good student, a trumpet player in the school band and holds varsity letters in three sports, she discovered last fall she was one gym class shy of having enough credits to graduate next month.
She asked for a waiver, but the school wouldn't budge, telling her instead she had to drop a class to take gym.
"Why would I drop an AP biology class to take P.E.?" the 18-year-old said. "It's just not on my priority list."
The missing credit wasn't caught by the school last spring when Gottlieb's schedule was set. The class in question is called BEST, or Building Essential Skills for Tomorrow, and is required for all Bow students to graduate.
At the Seattle high school Gottlieb attended before moving to Bow before her junior year, gym requirements often were waived for students in varsity sports. But those waivers aren't something Bow High School is willing to accept.
"Waivers vary from school to school and they're not standardized at all," said Principal George Edwards.
Gottlieb added the class last year after the school told her she had to take it, but then dropped it when she found out it was too much on top of classes she was already taking, including two Advanced Placement classes and calculus.
Both Gottlieb and her mother said the school suggested dropping either band, chorus, AP biology or calculus. But she and her mother decided sacrificing any of those would have diminished the quality of Gottlieb's education.
"I'm trying to get into college and someone isn't going to want to see someone drop an AP biology class a month into the year in order to pick up P.E.," Gottlieb said.
There will likely be no compromises in time for graduation. The class is not offered in the summer.
And it may not matter. Gottlieb already has been accepted to Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., where she plans to major in biology.
Trinity is aware of Gottlieb's situation and said that as long as she gets her General Educational Development, or GED, in time, there won't be a problem.
Gottlieb said that she already has taken the practice test and, once she hears back on that, will schedule a time to take the official version of the high school equivalency test.
Meanwhile, her mother, Ashley Warner, is planning a "non-graduation" party for her daughter.
"We realized that not graduating wasn't the end of the world," Warner said. "But it took a long time to come to that conclusion."
I still have dreams of missing an entire subject for an entire semester. For her, it's real.
Yeah this blimp is so unfit. must be all that soccer, rugby, lacrosse and alpine skiing she does.
(with her mother, the doctor)
(Love finding of "the authority disrespecting little punks" after they have been trashed by the assority lovers on FR)
I stand corrected.
The young lady had played three sports at the varsity level. She likely didn't need gym to learn how to be in good physical condition. Furthermore, many high school gym classes are taught by brain-dead coaches who know nothing about teachng kids how to make healthy choices and adopt healthy lifestyles. The reality is that gym has done no more to teach kids healthy physical lives than condom-based sex ed has taught them to have healthy sexual lives. Both are examples of government failure. It's sad to think that there are Freepers who can't understand these facts. I thought we were better than this.
Bill
Maybe not anymore, but my AP classes were worth *6* points if I got an A. Very worthwhile.
Go ahead kjam22. Tell us how successful you are.
At least she is going on to college. Most of the people these petty administrators prevent from graduating because of meaningless technicalities like this don't go on to higher education. These sadistic bureaucrats seem to take a perverse joy in taking the pride of high school graduation away from the few students it would actually matter to. These students' consolation is that public education is dying, and incidents like this go far to hasten its demise.
What a pathetic sentiment to hold. Teddy Rosevelt Said "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." I thnk I'll take his advice over yours. The title of #1 suck up is not appealing.
Homeschoolers know this...schools that accept homeschoolers know this. Someone told me this dirty little secret a long time ago, "you don't need an official high school diploma to go to college."
And from the reports about this girl, I don't think she needs it.
She doesn't need the degree as much as she needs the extra coursework. She's willing to give up the degree, which after she graduates from college, and probably goes on through grad school, won't mean didly squat.
The situation is different when than working for someone else, and they are paying you. Is she working for the school, are they paying her? No. In fact they pretend to be working for her, or her parents, or the community as a whole, but in reality of course they are working for their administrators, who are working for, although also attempting to "run", the politicians on the school board.
I've got friends and relatives who have been through business failure. There's nothing honorable about it. There's nothing glorious about it. There's nothing cool about it. When I retire I'll be better off than each of them, assusming God lets me live that long.
Roosevelt was right if you're talking about a nation. He was wrong if you're talking about supporting a family.
If these fatso had taken gym, instead of chorus, perhaps they would not now look like small houses with feet.
This impudent young lady should have dropped chorus and taken gym.
My USF bound senior in high School was the league MVP in football. He played basketball on a team that won a state championship this year. He's been all league three years on a baseball team that has won a sectional championship one year, lost in the sectional finals last year, and has a great shot at winning another sectional title this year.
He's in the weight room before most kids wake up. Oh, BTW, he has a 4.25 GPA. Fortunately his school never insisted that he take a worthless P.E. class over the honors math classes he's taken....
I didn't read it that way. I mean that she was willing to give up the degree. I read it that she didn't get the degree because she couldn't get the school to change their rules for her. The last line even says that at first it was quite a blow to the family ... not getting the diploma I mean.
I read it that she's making the best of it the way it came out. Which is fine.
She got what she wanted, admission into college. Why do you say she failed. She failed to achieve someone else's goal, but she achieved, or is achieving, her own.
"Gym is a worthless class"
True,but it doesn't HAVE to be.Nowadays its just"take roll and throw the balls out".Most kids just"kick it"in the bleachers or sit against the wall BSing.No organized physical activities to speak of.Truly a waste.
At my old high school in the Sixties we WORKED.You ran,swam,boxed,wrestled,weight lifted and played soccer,softball,golf,tennis and golf for six weeks each.We were in SHAPE at the end of the year.
It is very important for a young person to strive for physical,intellectual and spiritual excellence.A balance is critical.A good PE program can be a huge asset in a youngsters developement.
"We realized that not graduating wasn't the end of the world," Warner said. "But it took a long time to come to that conclusion."
I think she went through school with the intent of getting a highschool diploma. I think they were not happy when she didn't get it. I think they're making the best out of it. I don't think they made a conscious decision to forego the diploma. I think they tried to get the school to even change the rules to accomodate them. I'd say the failed .
So she heads to college.... maybe she learned something from this. That would be the real best outcome.
He neglected to complete a PE course in golf.
He died of a rare blood disease at 45. A full, normal career and he would have gotten up to 50 patents.
It looks like she does.
She made what might have been a hard choice between taking a fluff course just to satisfy an arbitrary (and largely useless) standard of getting a diploma, or taking a useful and challenging course and then accepting a GED to meet the technical standards required by the college.
She made a very common sense decision, and exhibited a little of that 'out of the box' thinking that could very well be the precursor of the actions of an invaluable employee.
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