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'm not a bureaucrat. I agree that the rule is wrong but I also don't think that it's completely honest for her to say she has to drop AP biology in order to take PE. There are too many little princesses in high school. If she is benefitting from the system, she has to follow the rules. Again, drop chorus. (all three of my children were in chorus and it's nice but not essentional)
once you hit high school, yes, thanks to extracurricular sports programs. But P.E. and gym would be great things to be reinstituted in most elementary schools. Maybe our youngest generation wouldn't be growing so chunky if the schools let them out of their desks for a while, like they used to when I was growing up. I bet it'd help calm the ADD/ADHD kids down a bit, too, if you let them burn off some steam, instead of medicating them into submission.
I agree. in this case, she should have dropped chorus. She's majoring in biology in college, not going for a music degree. It'd be more advantageous to her to keep the AP Bio class than anything else.
Requiremenst such as physical education class surely have as their goal not some specific academic material but attempting to ensure that the students are not couch potatos who get no exercise. It seems to me that if the girl has been a varsity athlete lettering in three sports, she's hardly a physical slug.
This seems to me precisely the sort of situation for which administrative discretion is meant: look at the girl's record, compare it to the requirement, and give her her diploma.
That position is exactly correct. But we're in an environment here at FR where most people really don't like public schools for a variety of valid reasons. And I think those feelings greatly impact their posts into this thread.
I'd like to say I'm flabbergasted, but there are a lot of sheeple here who believe a rule is a rule is a rule, and buy hook, line and sinker whatever the gub'mint tells them. I believe you fight back and never give an inch.
"and the school system out of the government"
I think we're saying the same thing here.
Voucherize the whole system. No government schools.
Actually, in many high schools, especially suburban high schools in wealthy towns, AP classes and honors classes are weighted. In my daughters' high school, AP and honors courses were weighted a full grade point higher than the earned grade. It just reflects what most elite private colleges say they want to see: they'd rather see a student earn a B+ in very rigorous courses such as AP Calculus, Chemistry, Biology, History or English, than A+s in 'average' courses. When I was in high school in California some 40 years ago, we didn't have formalized 'honors' courses. It was pretty funny when half of the "top ten" students in the class were taking a secretarial course rather than the 'college prep' course. In fact, the school did informally track students, and there were select sections of all college prep courses in which the brightest students were enrolled. For those of us applying to selective colleges, special letters were sent explaining we had been tracked into honors sections where the standards were much higher.
She is planning a music major in college
LOL... yeah right. You never give an inch. Do you stand your ground by refusing to pay your property taxes to a system that is wealth distribution? Do you thumb your nose at the IRS? Do you drive through the red lghts that you don't want to stop at? Do you drive whatever speed you want to? Do you do everything in your life that relates to the government and society rules exactly like you want to... never giving an inch?
She chose all of her life to go to a "gub'mint" school. Then at then end of it she chose to not follow the "guv'mint" rules and get her "gub'mint" diploma which she clearly wanted very much. I guess choices are choices.
Be polite, folks...
Seems to me the student could have gone to a community college to get the extra credit. The mother made the decision, now has to rationalize her rebelliousness.
If you've ever known an AP-student, three-letter athlete, chorus member who also plays trumpet in the band, you'll know that they are busy people, likely too busy dawn-to-dusk to shoehorn in a daily trip to the local CC. That was the whole issue, after all...not enough time in the schedule to fit in all the requirements.
Ironically, this student is a far better prospect for college and employment than many of her peers at the high school who will actually graduate. That speaks volumes about what the diploma is really worth.
She's in AP everything and is sweating a GED exam?
Why should she have dropped chorus and taken one semester of gym class when the article itself states she holds varsity letters in three sports. Do you think there's no discipline in achieving varsity letters in one sport much less three? You infer she's a fatso, please let me know what sports she could hold varsity letters in that would make her look like Jabba the Hut? Do you really think there's no discipline, no excercise, no thinking on one's feet in order to become lettered?
About the only skill learned in the school's mandatory program is CPR. She's already shown leadership, Now, assuming she hasn't taken any CPR classes, why couldn't the school have her take an extracurricular class taught by professionals on CPR?
I regret the school system is so rigid they'll prevent her from graduating from high school. Thank goodness the college she's selected isn't so full of itself that it would turn away a student who from all reports is interested in learning and has the discipline to take the courses she did take.
Ah, but see, we must always follow the rules even if there maybe a way to compromise.
With the initiative this young woman has shown, I'd be more than happy to have her as one of my employees.
Oh dear, she's going to miss out on the realities of drug and alcohol education and human sexuality. She's a senior, right? I was in high school 34 years ago and I'm not a drug addict, an alcoholic or sexually promiscuous. I suppose I was one of the few lucky ones who didn't end up in the gutter because I didn't have access to these classes.
One of the other semesters, students will begin the college planning process, with emphasis on the application process, essay and resume writing, and school selection. Well, it sounds as if she's already handled this part of her education on her own since she's been accepted into college provided she takes the GED or has her high school diploma. Only the red tape encrusted high school administrators are preventing her from getting her high school diploma.
I'm sure this program can help some of the kids who take it because it can teach them some critical life skills as well as motivate them. The problem is, the young lady in question has gone out and learned those skills on her own and so therefore must be penalized by being denied her high school graduation.
Darn right. How do you think she accomplished so much?
I'm thinking she'll be a part-time college student for a while until she gets with the program.
With that attitude, I assume you don't have a degree yourself?
I think it's worth it to take a few non-related, non-exciting classes to get the piece of paper. Without that today, kids will have a hard time getting a decent job. And those that think they are too good to follow the rules will end up whining about how bad the college system is, whereas they had a choice.
If you truly want to change the system, do it from the inside. Get a PhD, teach at a university, and try to become part of the administration. But considering that all universities worldwide require some basic social studies and language courses - and have for centuries - it may be tough to change the way it is done.
Seems to me as if I've always understood playing the system as being a way to circumvente to rules or to push up against them so hard as to make playing by the rules a semi-joke. I played the system during my career as a mortgage banker. I understood what the rules were but there were times when I had to stay just this side of the rules in order to get people's home loans close.
I never did anything illegal, I simply stretched and pushed against the rules.
I don't see where she failed. I see where the school system is so rigidly wrapped in red tape they can't see the treasure they have in her.
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