<p>my school.. on paper, it's awesome.. living through it is another deal..</p>
<p>WHAT I DESPISE:
- commuting to school everyday in rush hour traffic (i'm out of the district)
- THE COMPETITION DRIVES YOU NUTS (my school, and especially MY GRADE LEVEL.. we have some amazing kids each year that you're forced to contend with all 4 years.. and yes, what they get on their tests matters to you too because alotta tests are based on curves set by those darn overachievers)
- the ugly campus.. utterly ugly.
- teachers who don't understand that you take 5 other classes besides theirs
- biased teachers.. good number of them are here
- the fact that we work so much harder than most of the high schools around us yet we still have the same college admissions rates.. unfair? just a little.
- just the stress in general.. but it's not just me, it's all the kids of america and the world who are trying to get into college</p>
<p>girl, I know you are not exaggerating. Hawaii schools are like that. I go to a private school on maui and its definitely not that bad.
all of my gripes are nothing compared to that. all I can complain about are the stupid rich kids that do too much drugs and are just effing stupid. my school is undergoing construction right now so red dirt and red-dirt-mud stains and ruins everything. stupid collard shirts for dress code and its effing hot here so that sucks. Stupid administration picks on me too. Small school... I'm kinda in a prominent position at my school so I'm expected to set a "good example". F that. I've got 9 actual school days left. Graduation on the 28th! Everyone is also expected to play a sport. Its effing required. Bah. I just take PE class.</p>
<p>Definitely do <em>not</em> like my high school.
- administration is crazy- they suffocate every single thing you try to improve
- prevented me in taking more ap classes than i wanted, and didn't challenge me. not enough staff/classroom resources. the only challenging class was spanish, and that was a requirement. another thing i hate- taking a language class that was predetermined for me.
- we go on one month longer than most schools: 199 school days that students need to attend
- they go psycho sometimes when i want to leave school early to do a summer program.. ergh.
- teachers need to share classrooms, because there isn't enough space.
- our school is relatively a small school, with only approx 400 kids in high school, and 700 students 6-12. everyone pretty much knows each other, within a four year span. there's plenty of politicking going on which drives me <em>nuts</em>
- not enough tech support, and they shut the wireless.. only open to certain school laptops.
- our administration and other authority figures all "believe" in us, and praise our "accomplishments," while only raising everyone's hopes... not only in college admission but staying in college. one girl, i believe, actually failed/dropped out of community college (our first graduating class of '04).
- girls outnumber guys like 3:1 in my class.. and most of the guys that do attend our school are oddly effeminate
- everything is very glossy and slick- only a few, selected favorites are able to make connections.. and to make the school look better than it is
- we don't have a cafeteria. sit on concrete blocks outside, or on donated metal tables that are never clean.
- school hours are from 8:45-3:50... my yearbook class starts at 7:40 am. the first year, we went from 8:45 to 4:15, and was shortened down to where it is now.
- so many teachers leave each year.. our turnover rate must be huge. not to mention the number of kids who transfer to other schools.. scary.
- most people bus into school... i live in a different county, so i drive an hour to an hour and a half to school each day..
worse thing: you can't transfer out, because it'll be horrible to build up the same connections to teachers and other people in the new school.</p>
<p>I thought I had some legitimate gripes until I read some of these posts...yikes! I wouldn't want to go to some of these schools!</p>
<p>Thinking back, my school has been pretty carefree. We don't have "sweepers", tardies are really just based on whether or not you have a cool teacher who will let you in a few minutes late. And I've never served any detentions in my 4 years, so it's apparently not easy to get one. But there are some kinda crappy things about my school too (though not as crappy as some of these schools)
-Cigars were banned at this years (MY) graduation because last years students had to make them a problem
-Lots of small rules pertaining to the pep rally this year (because last years students had to make it a problem)
-30 minutes for lunch (isn't enough)
-Last year we had death threats from a freshman girl, so backpacks were banned for 3 months</p>
<p>Come to think of it, my school was pretty awesome except for the admins cracking down and taking away senior priveledges in MY senior year.</p>
<p>Hey, I don't really know what sweepers are... but w/e.
1. At my school, I have a two-hour class "AP US History and AP Lit" in one tiny classroom--50 people, y'all. 50 effing people in that room... And they are all really dumb. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>The administration is so incredibly geared toward CATS testing, the test for KY. There are no actual numbers, there are just four abstract labels you get. The best is distinguished, then proficient, then apprentice, then novice. Well, if our school does not make some major progress, we will be "underachieving" and apparently the sky will fall.</p></li>
<li><p>Teachers get tenure too easily. why do HS teachers need tenure anyway? isn't that for real honest-to-gosh college professors/researchers who need to be free to be sort of provocative without being afraid of being fired? Well anyway, my "AP" chem teacher is the most hilariously hypochondriac person ever. She said she had kidney stones and she would just buckle under and sit ON THE FLOOR for a while when she said "the pains came." Then she said "My doctors said that the pain I have can't be caused by kidney stones" If she weren't so old, I'd think she was pregnant. And she has tenure.</p></li>
<li><p>The good teachers are being "retired" to save the school money. IE the teacher of that 50 person APUS class turns 60 or something and she is basically getting fired.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Random sampling of occurrences at my school:
A former student today ran over (like in a car) two senior guys in the parking lot during lunch. Both boys went to the hospital in ambulances with serious injuries, and the girl who did it tried to drive away.
All but one of our custodians were fired due to budget cuts (the joys of living in CA). The quad after lunch is like a scene from a Hitchcock movie with all the seagulls.
My math class last year had too many students and not enough desks. Something like three people had to literally sit on the floor and use the wall to write on.
A biology teacher hits on the girls in all of his classes and then goes and smokes pot on the levee during break (our school backs up to a river).
My class (the class of 07) had a tee-shirt this year that played on the fact that we're graduating in 007. The gun from the James Bond symbol "broke" the school's zero tolerance for violent images on clothing. The administration stopped sales and had the shirt company print a giant (ugly) exclamation mark over the gun, and prohibited those who purchased the shirts before from wearing them on campus.</p>
<p>My Honors U.S. History I teacher is a sexist, biased towardsa girls...On a test, a boy can answer everything correctly and thoroughly, yet he takes off points, because the person didn't mention something we never went over in class or had no pertinence to the question...He did this on one of my tests, giving me an 85. One of my friends, who is a female, got 100, and she had the exact same answers I had, and she did not discuss the issues he said I should have...It really makes me mad...</p>
<p>Well, in my school...Let's see...
*There was a case, "Sypniewski v. Warren Hills", that almost went to the Supreme Court, as a kid wore a redneck shirt to school, and when he refused to turn it inside out, he was suspended and sued the school, claiming it was free speech, as he thought of himself as a redneck, and the courts eventually ruled in his favor, saying something had to happen at our school as a result of that for the school to act.
*A boy wrote death threats, saying he would kill a whole list of mpeople during lunch with a gun.
*Two teachers were fired within a month of each other, one for providing students with alcohol and sending a student explicit text messages, another for providing students with over $200 worth of alcohol on prom night last year...Both were also known to have been having sex with students.
*The bathrooms in my school smell of marijuana and cigarettes every day, and one can oftentimes see people smoking in them.
*My chem. teacher smokes in his little office, where he keeps all of the chemicals...
*My chem. teacher is an unjust grader.
*My history teacher (see my previous post) is a sexist.
*There's more...But I'mm too exhausted to think right now...</p>
The administration is so incredibly geared toward CATS testing, the test for KY. There are no actual numbers, there are just four abstract labels you get. The best is distinguished, then proficient, then apprentice, then novice. Well, if our school does not make some major progress, we will be "underachieving" and apparently the sky will fall.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Some schools will recieve a drop in funding if they aren't achieving their state's goals on the state tests, which would make your school even worse.</p>
<p>OH MY GOD!!! mcz there's so much going on in your school!!
i on the contrary love my high school very much even though it's not a perfect high school. probably because it's one of the best public schools in Boston. i have a friend who doesn't like her school and complains all the time about it.i think you guys should be satisfied with what ever school you go to if you don't just tell your parents you need a transfer. i wish my lunch were longer and the guidance councellor was in when people need her but all the same, no school is perfect.</p>
<p>Well, this stuff doesn't happen all at the same time...The lawsuit was a few years back...The two teachers, one of whom I had last year for health, were fired within a month o each other, and the kid was arrested for the threats...Those are the big things...The others are just random things I've witnessed and experienced, but it does suck...</p>
<p>I really, as I said a few posts back, hate many of the people in my school...Many of them are sex-crazed druggies and have numerous body piercings and tatoos...Oh, well...It will all be good when they're old and saggy with their tatoos on their filthy, trashy bodies...Hehehe...</p>
<p>Even though a lot of the problems I have with my school pale in comparison with what some of you go through, I still hate my school because...we have literally had month long wars between self-labelled 'punks' and 'preps' that led to continuous class intrusions and metal detector screenings for knives and guns...we are constantly hearing about pregnancies and drop-outs...one of my schools (I am a dual campus student) has a larger junior than senior class because so many people got arrested or quit before graduation this year...the teachers are blatantly biased in favor of athletes and some have admitted to altering grades to allow some to compete 'for the good of the team'...my guidance counselor has never even heard of most of the big name colleges I try to discuss with her and has already told me (despite being literally top 1% of my class) that I should continue to consider community college...most students in my school have never even heard of Model UN or Student Unions or anything like that, since they are too busy forming gangs or Anime clubs (no offense to Anime fans, it was just the first example I could think of)...one of my teachers that is responsible for three different curriculums doesn't even have a teaching certificate...it is our (as in me and all the other dual campus students) to figure out on our own all extra transportation and testing schedules because there is a bit of 'tension' between the two campuses and the administrators don't like dealing with each enough half the time to even pick up the phone...the work load is SO unrealistic half the time with weird shifts of nothingness and then a huge brunt of assignments that the teacher's acknowledge but disregard as an excuse...absolutely no respect from the majority of the student body towards the teachers or academically-dedicated students of our school...no clear disciplinary code which can lead to expulsion for a shirt that is a bit too short but a slap on the wrist for someone who literally attacked a teacher and then another student...well, all of u get the gist of it....I am obviously not in the worst of high-school boats but mine is certainly a leaky craft at best...</p>
<p>I really like my school, because it's the best in the district, but that isn't saying that much. Our district recently fired most of the old (i.e. good) teachers because they cost too much money, but due to a mistake in their calculations, this firing ended up costing the district several million dollars. Next year school will start fifteen minutes earlier every day so that we can get out an hour earlier every Tuesday. Also, all but one of our counselors will be fired next year, along with our vice principals, so we will have one counselor and vice principal for nearly 2000 students. Our school will also probably have to join with a really poor school in the district so we will have to add a few hundred more students without any new buildings.
Last year, my math teacher wrote an article for the Mirada (our school newspaper) about the rampant public displays of affections. It was titled "A Modest Proposal" and suggested giving those studnets a "sex room" for their use during lunch. The administration believed this went to far, and, not realizing that it was satirical (hence the title) banned the newspaper, causing the story to get picked up by CNN and ESPN.
We can't have rallies with fun things anymore, because parents who attended one of last year's rallies were offended by cross dressing of the "Sexy Seven," seven senior boys who sang Spice Girls songs.
Also, every time druggies are kicked out of the local Catholic school, they get sent to our school. Add that to the fact that we have had one student die a few weeks ago and two students get hit by a car in the parking lot (I go to the same school as Klon<em>n</em>fleck), and my school is also sort of depressing. BTW, the girl who hit the two boys only got a ticket (despite the fact that they were seriously injured and she tried to run) because she claimed she didn't know she hit the boys (one rolled over her car and her window was shattered) and that she was driving away so that she could find someone to call 911.
Anyways, sorry for the rant, because I actually really like my high school, lots of high performing kids that make it so I rarely have to interact with the normal student body (i.e. wanna be punk/druggies who are really millionaires) and the school isn't that bad. It's just really messed up in many ways, as high schools all over the country seem to be.</p>
<p>I have a love-hate relationship with my school. </p>
<p>Things I like:
-BEAUTIFUL campus and facilities. Like 20 years ago they made this AMAZING addition to our school with a beautiful new cafeteria, library and arts wing. Between the science building, the cafeteria and the arts wing there is this gorgeous "zen garden" type thing with original art donated by alumni of the school, and the art gallery has these huge window walls that look out to the garden (which is beautifully landscaped). The gallery also often hosts alumni or student artists.
-For a small school (250), we get pretty amazing resources. We have speakers come from far and wide, some even fairly famous (Chris Botti came a while back, if you're familiar with popular jazz)
-(For the most part), faculty from all around the country come to teach here.
-The arts program is very good, and I'm a theater student so that's important.
-Overall academic morale is very high. People actually do want to succeed.</p>
<p>Things I DON'T like:
-The school tends to pick 5 or so students from each class and deem them as "perfect", making everyone else feel really really stupid. (Even though almost everyone here is fairly brilliant)
-Some classes are just plain impossible. I know academic rigor is good, but there are a few classes (mainly the history department's classes) where an A or even an A- is literally impossible. World history right now I work my a## off and barely scrape by with a B.
-While most of the faculty is excellent, the foreign language and science departments are "corrupt". Not a single good teacher in foreign language, in fact at least 4 out of the 5 are known to have been treated for psych disorders, and the other one is just a lousy teacher. And out of 5 science teachers, 3 are mediocre and the other 2 are terrible. Especially one of them, who creates more controversy (spanking girls, snapping bras, inappropriate comments) than every other teacher combined.
-Bad grade deflation. Good news is that local schoolsl realize this and so you can get into UMich with like a 2.8 GPA. Bad news is that schools farther away that aren't as familiar with the school see a similar grade and see that they're applying to schools like Michigan and are like, what?!
-Corrupt administration. WAY too much promotion and alumni relations, not enough of anything that matters. We run commercials now...
-There are a bunch of scholarship kids, which is great, I'm on a partial scholarship about half tuition, but some of the kids on full tuition are dumb as freaking dirt. It's supposedly against the rules to recruit for non-academic purposes (sports), but there are at least 3 kids who are known to be recruited for basketball. All expenses paid, didn't even have to take the admissions test. But they're going here...(and failing of course)...</p>