<p>No, I didn't realize the connection between the GC and his teacher! What a school he's in!</p>
<p>Catch-22, since you've been accepted, my advice is to stick it out and ignore the jerk.</p>
<p>After you graduate, however, do whatever you can to document what happened. No one deserves to go through what you did.</p>
<p>Congratulations on getting into Huntsman. I agree that a "B" is very unlikely to cause them to withdraw their wonderful offer.</p>
<p>I have a few b's...because I had a knee injury and had to stay at home for the first month of school, needless to say, i struggled to make up a lot of the work, and then, I started working 30-40 hour weeks for the Kerry Campaign (my GC likes me, and I think she will tell Huntsman about my injury/work), will a few Bs be a problem? I plan to finish HS with a bang...all As is what I am shooting for, regardless of my history class. But I just do not think that this particular teacher is fit to teach...</p>
<p>I doubt that a few Bs will be a problem. I have not heard of admissions being rescinded for that reason. You might look for old posts on the original CC board because that subject arises each spring.</p>
<p>Yea. The other Bs I have are from classes where all except one student has an A and all others mostly have Cs and Ds. My counselor, surprisingly enough, likes me very much and says that she will send along "grade distribution" lists to Huntsman to make sure that they don't get the wrong impression. Another reason why I don't what to write a letter to the principal: this teacher's sister has been very good to me, I don't want to be the one that pulls the plug on her brother.</p>
<p>"this teacher's sister has been very good to me, I don't want to be the one that pulls the plug on her brother."</p>
<p>But what about the other students whom that guy will victimize? Don't conclude that he'll stop with you. He's probably been picking on the defenseless for years, and will continue doing this until someone is brave enough to speak up in a way that gets listened to.</p>
<p>It is too bad he has a nice sister, but that's not enough reason to fail to try to prevent other students from being hurt.</p>
<p>Just a student, not a parent, but we had a similar problem with a teacher at my school. He was new this year and about a dozen of us had him for two classes, one of which was AP. He would almost act bipolar in class, going from really calm to yelling and screaming at us. He personally attacked or threatened about everyone in the class but me. He hated the way we would ask why he took off points (I'll admit that some of the kids in that group were anal about grades though...) and actually threatened some of the kids when they came in outside of class to go back through papers and find more points to take off. Plus, we were way behind in where we should have been in the AP class. A small group of us went to talk to the principal and discuss some of the things that were going on and later talked with the head teacher of the department. I guess they talked to him or he's finally getting the hang of what our school is like (he had taught in a radically different situation last year), but he's been acting pretty normal for about the last month and a half. Yes, we're still behind in the AP class and probably will be for the exam, but at least it's not what felt like a threatening learning environment anymore.</p>
<p>We felt kind of like tattletales but that's a situation that needs to be addressed. Nobody really deserves to be attacked and abused like that when they're trying to learn. Has he attacked anyone else, or can anyone in that class "witness" to what he's said? You might want to go see the principal or history department head in person instead of via a letter.</p>
<p>But I really doubt that one B will make a huge difference, although you could write a letter to explain it if you feel that would help.</p>
<p>I've never heard of a college rescinding admissions because of B's. The most I've heard of have been schools that allow someone who dropped to all C's or got a D to start on probation. So, I wouldn't worry on that account.</p>
<p>I do think this teacher's conduct sounds outrageous and unprofessional. After you graduate, you should find a way to give a documented account of it to someone with authority, because this man should not be allowed to run his classroom that way. I would highlight the unprofessional part of his conduct -- not the personal dispute between the two of you. Perhaps there are other history teachers (head of the history department? principal?) who might act if they had some documentation, especially if it involved more than you as it seems to have done with the South African student.</p>
<p>When I was in high school -- won't tell you when -- some of the government teachers belonged to a right wing group called the John Birch society and brought in speakers who claimed the U.S. government was made up of communists. They didn't like my politics and accused me of copying my paper because it was "too well written for a high school student." I had to bring in my notes repeatedly to prove I had not cheated on papers all year. It was awful, but nowhere near the kind of personal attack you've described here and they did not penalize me gradewise. I'm delighted you got into Penn! Just grit your teeth and get through the year in this class, knowing you will be at a great school soon.</p>
<p>Well, he is doing this to me publicly, but he also has this huge grudge against my best friend, who is another asian (my best friend is actually a moderate conservative, but my teacher still marks him off a lot...we suspect it's because he is my best friend...). He hates both of us. I think he has some sort of inferiority complex or something...because one time, he yelled at me, and said, "You think you braniacs are so smart that you got into an Ivy. Well, let me tell you, the world doesn't work this way...blah blah blah"... again, the WHOLE SCHOOL, esp. my teachers and their respective collegues, know how extreme this guy is...all of them disapprove of this teacher, but because this teacher has the reputation of being a complete bully, nobody has the guts to stand up to him, not even the teachers...sad...I know...</p>
<p>I love Penn, btw, love Penn, love Penn, and still can't believe Huntsman took me...And, I am not worried about my grades that much, because my GC is really nice, and has assured me that she will give a careful/detailed explanation of why my grades dropped...along w. the grade distribution lists...in my school's senior IB classes...Bs are what you call Really High grades...hehe. So, hopefully, Penn will understand that.</p>
<p>" esp. my teachers and their respective collegues, know how extreme this guy is...all of them disapprove of this teacher, but because this teacher has the reputation of being a complete bully, nobody has the guts to stand up to him, not even the teachers...sad...I know..."</p>
<p>Once you get your h.s. diploma, the bully teacher will not be able to hurt you. At that point, you can go to the school board or school superintendent to complain. You really will have a lot of power: You will have been accepted to a prestigious program. You will have graduated with honors. You will have such an outstanding record, that if you complain about the bully, there's a good chance that you will be believed. The same probably is true of your friend.</p>
<p>You don't have the power now to stop the guy, but in a few months, you probably care. Even though I bet that you'd like to not deal with this after graduating, I hope you'll consider doing so so that others aren't harmed by this man. It's likely that his next target will be more vulnerable than you are since your accomplishments are not likely to be matched by the teacher's next victim.</p>
<p>Good advice, Northstarmom. I really do not want anybody else going through what I've gone through. Oh, btw, my best friend and I were tied for the val (not anymore..since the teacher has managed, quite successfully, to completely trash our grades), and my other classmates told us that he was/is very determined to see to it that his favorite pupil is going to be the val (I doubt that that will happen, since my friend caught his fav. pupil cheating on a final exam) Honestly, I do not care about the rankings anymore since I have a guaranteed top 10 spot...but it sucks for my best friend because he is applying to highly selective schools (Not as high as Penn, but Johns Hopkins), and the grade he has in that class might kill him. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>I will see to it that I keep this documented, and will consider the possibility of filing something w. the principal or the district...I mean, something has to be done. He is preaching hatred against muslims and attacking any sort of political discourse in his classroom.</p>
<p>Catch-22, I had a sort of similar situation last year.</p>
<p>My English teacher gave me horrible grades because she didn't like me. Every book we read had a strong female character, which no one has problems with, until the teacher decides to make comments to the class about the entire male gender based on the actions of the characters in the book (she didn't have a date to prom, 30 years ago, and she seemed still bitter). The thing that still stands out most in my mind is that I did an awesome presentation, she asked me a couple questions in the middle of it, and I nailed the answer right away, and she acknowledge that, while I had a friend who got their argument ripped to shreds by the teacher after practically every sentence or two, and she said all of their stuff was wrong. Then I got a C, and they got an A. People pretty much agreed that I got graded completely unfairly many many times.</p>
<p>My parents had a meeting with her and my GC, but it really didn't help anything. We would spend some of TOK class practically everyday complaining about her to the TOK teacher (who taught SL english, and was just a great person and awesome teacher), and he thought the same way we did, but he wouldn't come out and say it. Other members of the English department thought the same way about this teacher, but she's been at the school awhile, and the exam scores shows she does something right.</p>
<p>So in the end, I stuck it out. I didn't really have much choice, I heavily considered dropping to SL English, but that involves complications, and would have made me take a language HL, which was not my forte at all. I never did get a B in that class. I worried about my English grade until the college acceptances came in, and then I could relax somewhat, realizing it didn't matter as much anymore. Every year people take this English class, knowing grades will be based more heavily on how the teacher likes you than the quality of work you do, but there's nothing to be done =/</p>
<p>So, I guess in conclusion, I wanted to share that you are not the only one with teachers like that, and I suggest that you stick it out. Your acceptance will be fine with the Bs, and after you graduate you can throw them in his face b/c he tried to keep you out of the school you wanted to attend, but in the end, he is the only failure, as a person, and an educator.</p>
<p>Catch
I have not posted in a long time.. but your post inspired me to respond.
1. Yes the teacher is way out of line and his behavior is abusive.
2. Yes, you should expect a low grade. No way to fix this.
3. I don't think one low grade will get you thrown out of Penn.
4. Changing courses will raise eyebrows at Penn and "explaining" just make things more complicated. Although I assume it can be done.
5. But you should stick out the course not for Penn but for yourself. Learning to deal with abusive behavior is part of growing up and you will not feel good about yourself if you drop the class because you let a bigot run you out. Participate in class discussions if you feel like it, don't if you don't feel like it. The senior year spring grade in one course is not going to matter. </p>
<p>I would be tempted to tape a class but other parents on the board will probably consider this unethical. You could also ask for a meeting with the GC of if you feel uncomfortable about the sibling relationship there, with the principal.But if you do, write down the instances of abusive behavior beforehand and focus on those (your second post on this thread was far more useful to me than the first post). Whatever you do, see this experience as a part of learning how to resist unfairness while maintaining your own dignity. If politics is your passion, you will come across many such instances and this may be one of the most costless places to develop your skills on how to deal with this.</p>
<p>Good luck and keep us posted on the issue.</p>
<p>Mom2003 is right on every count. Putting up with the teacher for a semester will be a good life lesson. But if this is a public school, this would be grounds for dismissal for the teacher! It is appalling that a school would have a teacher like that.</p>
<p>Well, the fact is, I've been putting up w. him for two years...he also taught me junior year (my school has this screwed up IB program...). At first, I debated him, then, I tried to shy away from these rather frivolous political debates, but he never stopped (on a few occasions, he slammed his ruler on my desk because he thought I wasn't paying attention because I was not rebutting his arguments). And the first of the two years was when my best friend rebelled against him, and...errr...received no results (he wrote a vitriolic "teacher evaluation" and turned it in to the teacher, and the teacher spent a whole period in class saying how wrong my friend was. And later, he found a few occasions to yell at him and one time said, "I don't see you not failing"...). So, at the end of Junior year toward the beginning of this year, we decided to disengage from this man, who obviously has a grudge against both of us. And obviously, nothing is working out. </p>
<p>My friend and I have been contemplating drastic action against this man for so many reasons besides those above which I have already stated. Another big/huge problem is that I go to a rather...below the par public school...where the kids, even at the age of 17/18, do not have a shaped political mind, and this man has thoroughly convinced many of them his own political extremism. Many of the kids are now convinced that muslims=terriorists and have this very distorted picture of the democratic platform/party. My best friend and I parrallel him w. Hitler: when you are under his spell and buys his rhetoric, then this man seems flawless. However, after you find a flaw in his character, then everything he says seem to be plagued by his own opinions and biases. Btw, he sucks as a teacher because we are very behind in our class...because he always goes off on tangents and proposes these conspiracy theories about various wars/politicians, and often spends half of the class time talking about what he thinks is wrong w. the United States government...<em>sigh</em></p>
<p>Thanks for everyone's help. I think I will shtick it through his class for the remainder of senior year...even if I have to live through Dante's Inferno...hehe.</p>
<p>catch22, are you already in at Huntsman and Penn? Or did you apply RD?
But I don't know what you can do at this point. Your options are:
1) Telling administration about it; Mixed results. He could be fired and then they would scramble to get you a IB US History teacher. And may not find one that easily in the middle of the year. You said he was the only one there (and hence the job security). But if this backfired, it is worse for you than it is now. If you are not already in at Penn, then the mid-year report will have a big impact.
2) Keeping quiet. This one will hurt as well but you have to grin and bear it, it seems.</p>
<p>Already in!!!!! :)</p>
<p>Congratulations, Catch-22!! Just hold your nose and wait for September to come. I don't think this is worth it trying to get the teacher out; or to take some other course this late.</p>
<p>OK! I am shtickin' through! That, I will do. But, let me finalize one of my question (ok...this is gonna make me sound a little bit anal, but, I really don't want my acceptance to be in question/jeporady). If I got a few Bs on my mid-year report w. my counselor giving a full/detailed explanation of my my grades slumped a tiny bit (injury/work), along w. grade distribution lists that show only like one person in each of the B-classes (except for history) got an A, they will not do anything to my acceptance? I am planning to finish HS strong, so, no seniorites for me. Thanks.</p>
<p>Catch-22, from what I heard last year, you have to mess up really badly in your grades to be thrown out. Like Ds and Fs. A couple of Bs will not keep you out of Huntsman and Penn. You don't even need explanation. Do try to finish HS strong as you said.</p>
<p>"I would be tempted to tape a class but other parents on the board will probably consider this unethical." I personally think it's ethical, and perhaps even necessary. I find it outrageous that a teacher that abusive is allowed to remain in his position. One important step in "dealing with abuse" is whistleblowing, in my opinion. The question is whether the state that Catch-22 lives in considers it legal. In Maryland, it's not. In other states, it is.</p>