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."
Well I don't think we're at any disagreement that the whole situation is stupid. I can only speak from my experience where the classes were required and that's that. You don't take it, you don't graduate. If I didn't have to take gym class, I found every substitute option I could and took it.
Yes, her college did not care either way, so in that respect, you're right. If she's still getting to move on to college this Fall, she should have every right to do so because it really does seem like a tragedy that one damn lousy gym course is stopping her from getting a diploma. Hell, I don't think physical education classes should be required at all. They're pointless and did nothing to help me in my life. If anything, they made things worse (see: dork + locker room).
All I'm saying that if it were me at my alma mater, I'd have been denied a diploma too. I'm not saying it's right or fair, just saying that's the way our lovely "system" works sometimes.
She's varsity in 3 sports. She doesn't need a gym class.
That's absurd. At my school, both regular advanced/honors courses and AP courses got 5 points for ranking purposes. I think there was also some adjustment factor in case person A took all the same classes as person B, plus one more standard 4-point class, such that their rank wouldn't be diluted by it, i.e., punishing them for their extra work.
P.S. I beat the salutatorian by 0.009 GPA units. :)
Not at all. I referenced that to show that I read your "about" page. I consider myself to be a Christian, and your position in your Church is admirable, IMHO.
However, I just have to say that your position in this case is flawed. The fact that most people "just follow the rules" even when the rules make absolutely no sense or are morally wrong, has contributed to the degradation of civil society and education in this Nation.
The SS soldiers in the Death Camps were "just following the rules". Am I to suppose that this is OK with you as well?
This young lady has done the right thing; the GED she gets and her transcript showing advanced classes will stand her in better stead than a "diploma" with the PE requirement fulfilled. To suggest that it would be better for her to submit to (ridiculous) authority is an ill-conceived notion.
Only thing she could have done worse is to also be on the phone on lunch break with a parent serving in combat for America. The teacher's union can't stand for that.
Glad to see a liitle thought has gone into planning this course.
But it probably sounded like "haaah skrewl", didn't it?
Isn't she also a varsity athlete? And then has to take a lower grade PE? Screw that! Time to move on and leave the morons behind.
The point is that she was previously at a school where her varsity sports participation meant that she didn't need to take a gym class. Based on that standard, she didn't schedule gym when she was in an earlier grade and had more flexibility to schedule things. The graduation problem occurred only after she had spent three years pursuing an established plan. There's nothing here to suggest that she wouldn't be flexible for an employer. The situation only suggests that she realized that the approval of the educrats was less important than the course she had already mapped. If more people thought and acted as she did, maybe our society would break the power of idiots who value arbitrary rules over actually doing what's right and what accomplishes something.
Bill
Properly conducted, it's not, but few are properly conducted. But for some who "holds varsity letters in three sports", it certainly wouldn't seem necessary.
Schools have to make PE classes mandatory in order to justify hiring coaches to teach it. It may be a better solution than having some dumb basketball coach trying to teach English composition though.
How could she be accomplished? According to most FReepers that's just not possible in a Public School.
All I need in life is my brain and the 20 lottery tickets I buy very day.
Very well said, FRiend!
Only if you're the target in dodge ball.
I think the opinion here for many is impacted by their dislike for public schools.
And what small business person here tells the IRS that their rules are "arbitrary" and not a priority.
No system is perfect anywhere. But ignoring it's rules has it's own consequences. That's the way life works. Hers in this case is that she went to school 18 years and didn't get a diploma. Maybe that isn't important to her. If it isn't then what are they complaining about????
When was GED invented? Anyone...know?
The article says that she previously attended a school where her varsity sports participation exempted her from having to take gym. Whether one agrees with this rule or not, the point is that she went into her senior year believing that she had met the requirements for a gym class because of her sports participation. She clearly didn't have "an array of options" and know that "the class was required." She appealed, and that's her right. When the school turned down her appeal, her family decided that the degree itself wasn't important enough to make a change.
It might be a different story if the family was suing to make the school give her a diploma. As it is, they've plotted a course that will still take her to where she needs to be in life. They're taking responsibility for their choices. They're simply choosing to reject the inane rules of a bunch of educrats.
America needs more people who will stand against arbitrary and stupid rules. If we'd do more to crush those who try to create these rules, then we'd have fewer idiots trying to push themselves and their opinions into each of our lives. I hope that she succeeds.
Bill
But she didn't enter the school as a freshman. Her previous school counted the varsity sports (most count any level of interscholastic sports) as a PE class.
She shouldn't have dropped the PE class, though, assuming she only needed the one, but OTOH, she doesn't really need that degree and so can just say "screw it", which is just what she did.
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