<p>I was recently accepted into Harvard and Yale regular decision. (I am the first person to have been accepted to Harvard from my school, and the second person in the history of my school to have been accepted into Yale.) When my AP Statistics teacher found out that I was accepted into Harvard and Yale, he reminded the class that he was going to email and call each school that each student in his class was accepted to and try to have our acceptance rescinded, if our grades dropped by 5 points or more. I was wondering what I should do about this? I don't think a teacher should have the ability to do this and threaten an entire class...</p>
<p>I would suggest that you have a chat with your guidance counselor about this teacher. This may be an routine threat to classes full of sufferers of Senioritis. Think carefully. Are people slacking off? Are you?</p>
<p>I don’t know if the teacher actually could or would do this (after all, is he even privy to the list of schools to which his students were accepted?), but the threat is absolutely inappropriate. Yes, report it to the guidance counselor . . . but this conduct should also be reported to the principal.</p>
<p>Threatening or bullying students is NOT okay and should be reported to someone in authority. The teacher may have thought he was joking . . . but his joke crossed the line.</p>
<p>And, in response to happymom1 - It doesn’t matter if the kids in the class are slacking off. That’s their choice . . . and if they’re okay with letting their grades slide a bit, the teacher can either work harder to keep their interest, or get over it. Colleges will make their own decisions whether or not to rescind acceptances based on end-of-year grades - they don’t need a busybody teacher trying to “help” them!</p>
<p>And, really, if threats (“routine” or otherwise) are the only way this teachers knows how to inspire the most successful kids in his class, then maybe he should be looking for another job!</p>
<p>It’s irrelevant whether the OP has senioritis. The teacher should grade as he sees fit; however, the college acceptance status of his class is none of this teacher’s business nor can he threaten students with a personal vendetta (other than via the gradebook) if they don’t take his class seriously enough. </p>
<p>OP take it to your guidance counselor, who will have a word with the teacher advising him to knock it off. If that doesn’t happen take it higher if you feel you need to - your parents and/or the principal.</p>
<p>As others have said, it deserves a meeting with the principal. He certainly seems to have have a very elevated sense of his importance in the world of college admissions. Harvard and Yale don’t admit students off the cuff…He thinks if they get a phone call from a HS stats teacher reporting that an admit went from a 92 to an 87 they are going to rescind? It doesn’t work like that.</p>
<p>heyhola: if you were my kid, I’d personally go up to your idiot teacher and have a strong face-to-face with the principal in the room. Bullying plain and simple. And YES, I would threaten his JOB.</p>
<p>Seriously, you all are being ridiculous. It was probably a joke, and I would love to see you try to ‘inspire’ senior students at this point in the year in a calculus class. Parents like this are why good teachers with standards find other jobs.</p>
<p>sakacar: I fully support each of my kids’ hard-working and dedicated teachers. However this behavior crosses a line, IMHO.</p>
<p>Let me step back. Giving the benefit of the doubt, I would contact the teacher and let him know that students have felt threatened and if that was his intention. Then we’ll see where it goes from there. In person, I’m extremely diplomatic.</p>
<p>He can do as he pleases. For all you know, any of them are doing the same. This one just said he would. You have no idea who might be saying or doing whatever.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who sees the possibility that the teacher was <em>obviously</em> joking, and OP just didn’t get it. I don’t think it’s inappropriate to joke like that if it’s obvious.</p>
<p>I have heard of teachers pulling recs if kids they’ve recommended stop working, and I have no problem with that; I’d do it too. But this teacher is bluffing and wouldn’t (and couldn’t) do such a thing.</p>
<p>Snowdog, no offense to the OP, but I do know multiple people (especially smarter students) who don’t quite get our teachers’ humor all the time.</p>
<p>I can see a teacher grading harder on purpose to make sure everyone wasn’t slacking, but it’s unprofessional (in the same way that writing a bad rec is unprofessional) to call about admission. First of all, it’s not their job to try and get the kid out, and second of all a drop of 5 isn’t bad.</p>