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."
"She is planning a music major in college"
well then for crying in the milk, drop biology AP. I think she's acting like a spoiled baby. I want I want. And there are all sorts of extracurricular ways to learn music. My son was in a private chorus for three years.
She had more than one opportunty and method to achieve her goal that were within the system, but prefered to try to change the system to fit her desires. She failed at that too.
Your attitude is why there are so many fat, FAT kids running around today.
You still don't get it.
It's biology and music majors
When you're a high school student and first hear about the GED, you naturally assume it's a huge, exacting, painful testthe SAT on steroids. One test that obviates an entire four years of high school?! Surely it must be horrendously difficult, or else everybody would take it! Then you actually take the stupid thing, and you discover that it's designed to be easy enough for anyone to pass, no matter how short the bus they rode to school was.
Actually, apart from the "variety of traditional and individual sport activities, adventure based education, and fitness activities" of the Bow Extremely Stupid Title program, what she missed in the Senior BEST year was "Topics range from law as it pertains to the transition from adolescence to adulthood, to financial information on credit cards and purchasing/leasing vehicles".
No doubt handy stuff, but also something a reasonably intelligent adult can pick up as they go.
What are you talking about man...I learned to square dance in high school gym!
Well then, the little princess should get everything she wants and to hell with the rules.
Actually, I have a Bachelor's degree in Biology, a Master's in Computer Science, and additional grad work in Medical Laboratory Science.
I've also taught at the middle school and high school levels, so I'm well aware of the bureacratic minds that run public schools.
Grad school curricula tends to be focused and without the PC garbage. I don't have a problem there.
It's the undergrad, liberal arts curricula foisted on every student that irks me. At least half of the coursework I took as an undergrad was a waste of time. If you attended a decent high school, you don't need yet another survey course in Western Civ or English Comp. Get rid of the sociology crud and the pseudo-sciences that clutter core requirements.
I'm with you on language courses. However, those requirements were being phased out when I entered college 40+ years ago.
The way to change the system is to be a vocal consumer. Grad schools are much more attuned to what their students want and really need. Undergrad schools are still stuck on the medieval, we-know-what's best-for-you model (heavy on PC content).
That's "bureaucratic".
I agree that graduate schools are better. Unfortunately, one has to go through the undergrad program to get there. My engineering grad program consisted entirely of engineering classes (imagine that!). No PC courses at all.
But, what would we do with the kids that don't know what they want to major in at 18 years old? I imagine that's a lot of them - I wasn't sure myself whether I wanted to go physics or engineering. A lot of the first 2 years' core courses might be aimed at giving the kids a well-rounded intro to what's available. But then - that should be going on in high school after all!
**Voucherize the whole system.**
Nay, creditarize it, as in educational tax credit. Vouchers are a socialist scheme for the transfer from the haves to the have-nots. A tax credit returns money paid for public education to their rightful owners.
**No government schools.**
Agre. Agree. Agree, but not with vouchers.
Having a GED will not hold her back at all.
My son skipped high school and took community college classes instead, so he'll have enough credits for his AA before the end of his high school years, but no diploma.
Solution, is to take the GED, at that point, and then they'll award him his AA.
I've spoken with the University he's transfering to and they said they couldn't care less whether he has a diploma or GED.
***Good for you. High schools are obsolete, just as Bill Gates says. We have been discussing inexpensive ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda and other idiocies such as this one:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84
Unfortunately my thread title was not well thought out, because some parents might instinctively skip over it due to attached stigma, whether real or imagined.
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