When in the 8th grade at Sanford Middle School, I was already a fluent typist and had taken a few classes to prove it. In high-school, I wanted straight-away to start in web-design classes, but was required to take Business Systems Technology (where you learn Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc). I opted to take an exemption exam to waive that requirement, and start in Web Design I.
After about a week of needless definitions (FTP, HTTP, HTML, etc) including old protocols that aren't used anymore (like Gopher - a protocol similar to a public FTP server) I went to the teacher and told her I needed to be moved up to Web Design II.
She said no, but I told her yes I do.
After a few days of bugging her, she finally asked to see what I had done.
At that time, I had a very fancy looking website up that used XHTML Strict compliant code and CSS. She looked at it, tried it out, added content (it allowed you to add content and submit information automatically), and didn't believe that I made it.
After I introduced her to the WHOIS database and showed her that I owned the domain, and added code to it that proved that I wrote it as well, she didn't believe that I wrote the code. I showed her that I could write HTML quite well (even forms, which she was very surprised about) and she finally said that if I could convince administration, I would be allowed to enter the Web II class.
And then the real battle began.
My first stop was the guidance counselor. It was really the first time I had met her, and she was rather quick to understand what I needed, and was willing to give moving me up a class a shot. She submitted the papers, and it was returned a day or two later as "denied."
Being stubborn and unwilling to waste my time in a Web I class, I returned to the counselor and told her that wasn't acceptable. I moved up the chain of command and ended up talking to another, higher-up figure about the issue. We bickered and argued, but eventually it came down to this: Moving up to Web II this year without taking Web I, voids your ability to sign up for the Vocational Bright Futures Scholarship.
At that point, I didn't care, and told them so. I told them that it was OK, and they even spoke to my parents about it. They said they would do it, but first they needed my parents to sign a contract saying they know the consequences.
At the time, my parents were taking my brother to the College of Wooster and I was at home alone, and figured out how to fax them the contract, have them sign it, and then fax it back to be turned in.
I was in Web II at the cost of a Vocational Bright Futures Scholarship. I forfeited a scholarship because I was more advanced than the other individuals.
Let me repeat that in a slightly more understandable way.
Because I already knew what they were teaching and was unwilling to waste my time, I forfeited an opportunity of success.
The system is broken yet again: stifling self-motivation and success; stifling those who choose to study things of their liking out of the system of school; stifling their ability to put themselves ahead of others.
They are essentially penalizing individuals who attempt to strive ahead of the curve.
Update 3/24/3008 22:20 EST A Chronology of School and Myself is quite related as well.
It kills me to think of the amount of time and mental ability being wasted in our public school systems. The goal, definitely for many low-performing students, but as I'm starting to learn, for many teachers as well, is to occupy a desk for a set period of time. The learning thing is totally optional, and, in several cases (like the one you have just documented) actually frowned upon.
Granted, to establish a public school system designed to teach all the youth of this expansive nation enough to be successful in a rather complex society that has a formidable set of rules and expectations itself is a daunting task. To create a system that *doesn't* demand conformity is either impossibly difficult, impossibly complex, illogically structureless, or prohibitively costly.
I just wish students could take classes that were actually appropriate for *them*, not simply their biological age. I read today that your high school is ranked third in Central Florida by the local newspaper. Part of its bragging rights? That 62% of its students are reading at grade level, according to the FCAT.
Again, 62% of the students at this school are able to read on the level expected of students in their grade, and that's considered a *good* school. 33% of the economically disadvantaged students were at grade level. "Yeah, two-thirds of our poor kids can't read at the grade level we say they're on, and 48% of the whole school can't read at the right level, but gosh durnit, we're a good school!"
I'm starting to think that the concepts of "education" and "rationality" are mutually exclusive. Your post is an excellent example of the idea.
Wow, this is most unfortunate.
I nearly failed Junior High computer class because I refused to use the home row while typing. I entered and left that class typing ~80wpm with astounding accuracy.
All because of that damn home row.
Funny, I also failed keyboarding. Not only was I failed, but I also ended up with a week of in school suspension after the teacher convinced the dean, "...it's not possible to type faster than 45 words per minute. He cheated and did something to the PC."
Even before that, I had been enrolled in the [gifted|flame|whatever it may have been called at your school] program for "eager learners" in middle school...
...when I got to High School, I was informed that I did not have any English or Math credits (because of the time slot of the "eager learner" program).
So there I sat. World History Honors, Earth Science Honors, English as a Second Language, Prealgebra and Keyboarding for a second time with no hopes of a test-out or graduating on-time with the rest of my classmates.
I dropped out that year and completed a GED walk-in exam...
...I didn't realize at the time how much it would cost me today.
Now I know what I would've had to deal with if I had decided to skip web one :P That really sucks that you went through all of that just to get moved up to the appropriate level and they told you no vocational scholarship. I feel that is really messed up... Someone getting punished for being more educated on a topic is far beyond belief. The school system has failed us once again.
I really don't blame you for badgering her like that lol and it's just like her to believe that you didn't do the work when you're in a class full of people who cheat off each other hehe.
I felt web design 1 was a complete waste of time for several reasons. The main reason would have to be that I knew everything... the second would be that I did not enjoy being in a class full of people who didn't understand ANYTHING when everything is such a basic concept. ARGH!
:) I really hope you feel you did make the right choice though. Everything does come with a consequence!
What I don't get is the last paragraph: you dropped out? > fill me in.