My school

[nich]

So I have been in high school for three years, and I am now on my final year. Up until grade 11 my experience has been OK. I had my share of shady teachers and also so dumb classes. For instance, I took 3 cyber arts classes so I could learn Photoshop.

Well turns out all three of them happened to have a "catch". In grade 9 we spent half the semester doing regular art and then moved to computers. Nothing to do with Photoshop. In grade 10 it was all computers, but for the first month we were learning photography and we had to make are own old school camera that uses exposure to light (Mine didn't work ). nothing to do with Photoshop. And in grade 11 we were doing art with flash but we also had to be journalists. We had to cover school events By writing the story and take pictures and videos to be put up on the school website. Once again, nothing to do with flash.

Other that that I have no real complaints. At least until Grade 11. It was the start of semester 2. Two weeks after Christmas break and I just got settled in with my new classes. There was an assembly at school. It was basic stuff like reminders about doing all the requirements to graduate. Well they also told us that grade 12 coarse selection was in a week and told us about the different coarse levels.

There was locally developed, applied, and academic for grade 9 and 10. In grades 11 and 12 they are replaced with workplace, college, and university. logically, if you plan on going to college, you take college level coarses and with university, you take university. There is also a mixed level that counts towards both college and university. They said that when applying to post secondary education, they will require at least 6 of the required levels in grade 12.

So me being the prepared person I am, I did my online selection early. I select college level because that is where I want to go, only to find out they require prerequisites of the college level in grade 11. I was already in grade 11! Why would they wait till now to tell me this? How the smurf am I supposed to pick grade 11 college if I am already in grade 11.

So I go to guidance, ask if I can boost by current classes to college level. So after the day we select our classes, I have to do it with my assert. (OoC?) So she asked me to show her the classes I wanted and guess what she said? "You can't take this coarse because you don't have the prerequisites."

No smurf shazam!! That was the point of me coming down here. To solve that problem and she just tells me the problem like I don't know and says I am not allowed to take it.

So I ask her if I can change my classes so I do have the prerequisites for grade 12 and she says I don't have the prerequisites for that because you would have to take grade 10 applied, and to take that I need to take grade 9 applied. 4 extras years of high school!? I don't think so.

Truth is she didn't know what the smurf she was doing or how the system works. What you do is you find the coarse you are taking and a line will to connect to other coarses. If you take a low level the line may connect to a high level and a low level. So you have a choice in what you pick. And she also said all the other classes I wanted I couldn't get into even know the line connects and it had to green check mark.

And something that really pisses me off is that for my English class from grade 9 to grade 12, there are no extra lines so I can't choose if I want a college in grade 11 and 12 to go to college. Now I did have a choice because my teacher in grade 9 said she would bump me up to applied if I picked harder novel to read but I choose to stick with easy work. But then again why did they wait until grade 11 to tell me this? They should have told me right when school began. It's nice knowing you don't have a choice

So the next thing she does is she gives me co-op, a coarse where you experience the workforce by going to different jobs outside of the school. And what I just discover today from my co-op teach is I need a period 3 lunch not period 4, because at the end of co-op it's not physically possible to make it back to the school for my next class. He says he'll sort it out before we do the off site part.

But the point is if I can't make my 3rd class, why would they give me a class in period 3 knowing I take co-op. To make it even worse during the assembly they said colleges and universities do not count co-op coarse. So why did she give me that class? Co-op is a two credit class to.

Amazing. I go to guidance, I talk to my personal assert to try to help me get into college and not only do they not help my problem, they make it worse!

Anyway, I never give up. I am going to assume this just means there is a low chance of making it to college. But even that is not impossible. So I will still apply after I graduate but isn't great that the people at my school who are supposed to help you, could very likely crush my dreams? Well know one tells me what I can and can't do, and those who do I will do everything I can to prove them wrong!

[Wesley]

Dude, my stuff was so screwed up between 11th and 12th grade.... In 12th grade i was taking both grade 12 history and grade 10 history. My English class was grade 9. I had no Math at all! All of this was because I was sick when the paperwork was supposed to be submitted, and my counselor did not like me very much, so she was not very helpful. She is probably the main reason I did not go to college.

You can do it, man! I mean, I turned out to be Great Zot. Best of luck to you!

[LaLou]

Reaper, if you really set your mind to it you can do it.
Prove them wrong and do what it takes to get where you want.

[Steroids Man]

At least you went to school, I had to teach myself how to read by reading the labels on discarded condom wrappers I found.

TRY PUTTING THAT ON A RESUME!!!!

[chex]

Funnily enough, I have put that on a resume. I was hired on the spot!

[Shay]

School was incredibly frustrating for me because I was constantly moving and some of the schools I went to didn't have the "diff" classes that I was used to. So a few times the classes I was taking in 9th and 10th grade were occasionally higher level than the classes I was taking in 11th and 12th. In 11th grade I was taking Social Studies grade 9 and Social Studies grade 11 in the same semester. More often than not, I also had to retake classes because the courses I took in one location did not count in another location. Come 12th grade I was taking all nine classes plus two independent studies when most seniors were taking only four to five classes and getting half days all year. To boot, I still couldn't graduate because my English teacher smurf me over and flunked me because I had bronchitis and was out of school for a little over two weeks while a major project (half our grade) was due. I didn't do it while I was out of school because I was sicker than a dog and trying to to keep up on all my other work at the same time...what little I was able to keep up on. They're supposed to give you the same amount of make-up time as you were gone for. So I should have had at least two weeks to get it complete, but the teacher wouldn't let me. So I failed the class. Because of that I said to hell with it and dropped out. I was already working my bottom off and now come to find out I couldn't even graduate because of one smurf class? Not cool!

I ended up getting my GED and one of these days I will go to school again. I really want to. It's just been a matter of time, money, and priorities.

But anyway... even if you get smurf over in school, you're not incapable of going to college, I assure you. The great thing is there are lovely little community colleges which are GREAT for getting in prerequisite classes for the courses you want to take in college. It's also a lot cheaper than taking them in a university. Whereas the guidance counselor at your school may have not been very helpful, you'll find that there is a lot of aide out there to assist with the actual college process outside of high school.

I wish you the best of luck!

[Eff]

hey reper!!!! well-bak