4 ms·

By no means universal, merely a reflection of my experiences. For example, I was an exchange student for a year and when I came back I was told I'd get no cred

by sequoia 15y ago

By no means universal, merely a reflection of my experiences. For example, I was an exchange student for a year and when I came back I was told I'd get no credits for it because I couldn't produce a report card , so I was held back (i.e. punished for studying in a diff. country for a year). Same year: moved from another state, forced to take freshman "earth & environmental sciences" because it's a state requirement. I requested being able to take AP Environmental Science instead: "no, it's a requirement." So I'm turning 18, held back to 11th grade because I got an exchange scholarship, forced to take a freshman (remedial) course surrounded by kids straight out of middle school (embarrassing and discouraging as a teenager) when I'm willing to take a comparable AP course. This stuff happened with me all throughout school. To be fair I was somewhat lazy, but much of this was due to the feeling of powerlessness and inevitability public school is designed to instill. inb4 someone who had a different, great public school experience. As I said, this is my experience.

fleitz 15y ago
The key with the public school system is to leverage your statistical power. When I was in school I told them I wasn't going to take all the optional blocks and instead would have spares. They said that it was a school policy blah blah blah. I told them that the School Act defined no such requirement and being older than 16 I was no longer required to be in school at all so they could either let me have empty blocks or kick me out for violating the school policy on spare blocks. Being a rather articulate student I would be willing to write a letter to the editor explaining how a student who could sleep through math class and still get an A in the course was being forced out of school despite fulfilling the requirements of the School Act. They could have another graduate on their rolls or another drop out, it was their choice.
- Jach 15y ago
  ...So I guess they let you stay? That seems like a risky game to me, I didn't think schools really cared about their students individually, just on an aggregate "x% graduated so we get funding" level. When I finished 8th grade, with 7th and 8th being full years of 4.0 GPAs every quarter, my junior high decided to kick me out instead of letting me go into 9th grade because I lived in the neighboring city and they didn't like that. The city JH and HS I went to after though were better anyway. I kind of wish I took the GED as soon as I could have, would have saved many years. I had the unfortunately lucky 'problem' of liking a lot of my teachers and classes though. Basically what I hated were the prerequisites and the required things like art/p.e./poorly taught history which I had already learned in junior high that I had no interest in those things. (I actually liked weight lifting in p.e., but the running and 'games' I didn't like.) (It's especially bad that many of the required subjects in high school are near-replicas of what was required in junior high since most students had forgotten what they learned by then and when a Ceramics course is available to fill an art requirement the teacher has to construct it for those who suck at art, while the good ceramics people still have to take it to get to Ceramics 2.)
chopsueyar 15y ago
This is not limited to public schools. I experienced something similar after transferring from a private university, taking six full semesters of a computer engineering curriculum, only to be required to attend community college to take intro to computers, among others, before I was allowed to enroll in a public university. So, six years of fulltime classes for an undergraduate degree is my experience.
- Jach 15y ago
  I'm in a similar situation, though I'm going to stick it out and finish the CE degree at my private school. I've heard other students call up University of Washington who once the people there heard the name of my school, they laughed and said "Yeah we won't accept your credits even though your classes are harder than ours and your school average is 20-credit semesters." The main issue there is accreditation. For my school to get the same level of accreditation as universities, basically the only thing that needs to change is the power structure and possibly a few more required "soft" classes. We have a pretty decent Dictator even if he has his faults, the analogy is something like the difference between Python with a BDFL and C++ with a committee.
pjscott 15y ago
To date, I have only met one school administrator who was not a petty authoritaria. She was in charge of a tiny school of about 50 people, and was also a teacher there, so I'm pretty sure she was an aberration. Talking with other people has pretty well confirmed it: the kind of behavior you describe is very common. Accommodating an exchange student without a report card, or letting you out of an ill-fitting state requirement, would be inconvenient for them, and would be a precedent for even more inconvenience. Your own welfare is trivial compared to that. And if you argue, then you are an impudent child who must be dominated to re-establish their authority over you. The harder you argue, the more imperative it becomes that they not listen. One of the great pleasures of adulthood is no longer being forced to suffer the presence of such people in my life.

by sequoia 15y ago

fleitz 15y ago

The key with the public school system is to leverage your statistical power. When I was in school I told them I wasn't going to take all the optional blocks and instead would have spares. They said that it was a school policy blah blah blah. I told them that the School Act defined no such requirement and being older than 16 I was no longer required to be in school at all so they could either let me have empty blocks or kick me out for violating the school policy on spare blocks. Being a rather articulate student I would be willing to write a letter to the editor explaining how a student who could sleep through math class and still get an A in the course was being forced out of school despite fulfilling the requirements of the School Act. They could have another graduate on their rolls or another drop out, it was their choice.

Jach 15y ago
...So I guess they let you stay? That seems like a risky game to me, I didn't think schools really cared about their students individually, just on an aggregate "x% graduated so we get funding" level. When I finished 8th grade, with 7th and 8th being full years of 4.0 GPAs every quarter, my junior high decided to kick me out instead of letting me go into 9th grade because I lived in the neighboring city and they didn't like that. The city JH and HS I went to after though were better anyway. I kind of wish I took the GED as soon as I could have, would have saved many years. I had the unfortunately lucky 'problem' of liking a lot of my teachers and classes though. Basically what I hated were the prerequisites and the required things like art/p.e./poorly taught history which I had already learned in junior high that I had no interest in those things. (I actually liked weight lifting in p.e., but the running and 'games' I didn't like.) (It's especially bad that many of the required subjects in high school are near-replicas of what was required in junior high since most students had forgotten what they learned by then and when a Ceramics course is available to fill an art requirement the teacher has to construct it for those who suck at art, while the good ceramics people still have to take it to get to Ceramics 2.)

chopsueyar 15y ago

This is not limited to public schools. I experienced something similar after transferring from a private university, taking six full semesters of a computer engineering curriculum, only to be required to attend community college to take intro to computers, among others, before I was allowed to enroll in a public university. So, six years of fulltime classes for an undergraduate degree is my experience.

Jach 15y ago
I'm in a similar situation, though I'm going to stick it out and finish the CE degree at my private school. I've heard other students call up University of Washington who once the people there heard the name of my school, they laughed and said "Yeah we won't accept your credits even though your classes are harder than ours and your school average is 20-credit semesters." The main issue there is accreditation. For my school to get the same level of accreditation as universities, basically the only thing that needs to change is the power structure and possibly a few more required "soft" classes. We have a pretty decent Dictator even if he has his faults, the analogy is something like the difference between Python with a BDFL and C++ with a committee.

pjscott 15y ago

To date, I have only met one school administrator who was not a petty authoritaria. She was in charge of a tiny school of about 50 people, and was also a teacher there, so I'm pretty sure she was an aberration. Talking with other people has pretty well confirmed it: the kind of behavior you describe is very common. Accommodating an exchange student without a report card, or letting you out of an ill-fitting state requirement, would be inconvenient for them, and would be a precedent for even more inconvenience. Your own welfare is trivial compared to that. And if you argue, then you are an impudent child who must be dominated to re-establish their authority over you. The harder you argue, the more imperative it becomes that they not listen. One of the great pleasures of adulthood is no longer being forced to suffer the presence of such people in my life.