<p>If the guidance counselor is like ours, he has so many conversations about so many things that he probably cannot remember what he said. Or, if he's new, maybe he did not know there was a policy -- in that case, he should have checked. I guess I would be worried how college officials would see her after this publicity. Sure, UT is a big school, but someone will remember this young lady in a not so positive way. I mean, our valedictorian a year ago was not loved when she chose to go to a special magnet school each morning and finish her day at our school. All the magnet classes are weighted. She jumped from No. 3 to No. 1, and that did not sit well with some kids who thought she was wrong for trying to better herself. All three kids knew the classes at the magnet were weighted. All three could have gone there. She was the only one who did.</p>
<p>Okay, I'm such a dork that I actually did the math. If she had really taken all the AP classes she could, and if she took 8 "regular" classes next year and got a 100 in all 8, it would bring her GPA down from 5.89 to 5.66. Still higher than the official val, but that shows you what adding in the non-AP courses that everyone else takes would do.</p>
<p>One of mine had a friend who did this , and tried to convince D to drop band becuase the 100 was draggin down her GPA. Um, no, we didn't want to play that game.</p>
<p>Ah, but missypie that's only half. Now calculate the closest competitor's potential rise in GPA. It's already a 5.64. Now you see whiny dad's plan taking shape. This was gamesmanship all the way.</p>
<p>At my high school every student who had a 4.0 or higher was a Val. My graduating class of nearly 500 had 28 vals and 2 sals (3.9s). Now, they did rank us, and there was some controversy in that the girl ranked 1 was able to take Bio as a freshman thus enabling her to take one more AP course than the rest of our class. I personally was amused that she took it so seriously. This same girl apparently caused another fuss over being ranked first at her junior high.</p>
<p>I agree that there is a lot of gamesmanship going on. When people feel that money or competitive college admission is at stake, they can go overboard in trying to work the system to their advantage and lose all sight of the value of education for education's sake-ie. taking a stance of "desperate times call for desperate measures".</p>
<p>Right, cur...I won't go so far as to do the math, but if while she was taking 8 regular classes as a senior, the no. 2 was acing 5 AP classes, the positions could certainly reverse.</p>
<p>I had never heard of AP classes until a few years before my own kids were in high school. I think I first saw the high school "weighting chart" when my eldest was in 7th grade. There are folks writing passionate newspaper columns in her defense, and I think that they really have no clue over how grades are weighted, the normal order in which students are allowed to take courses, etc. (just like I was a few years ago.)</p>
<p>You have to run 26 miles to win a marathon. You're not allowed to stop after 20 miles and declare yourself the winner. High school is a marathon for the high-achieving student. A lot can happen in that final year. Last year, the #2 student in the senior class of our high school lost their salutatorian slot and fell to # 3 in the final year. Finish the race.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You have to run 26 miles to win a marathon. You're not allowed to stop after 20 miles and declare yourself the winner. High school is a marathon for the high-achieving student....Finish the race.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Was this posted by darius, or by the Hillary campaign?</p>
<p>Wow. I hate that marathon analogy. Nothing expresses the potential of high school for mindless, boring, pointless achievement better.</p>
<p>The goal of high school, in my mind, is to acquire basic tools in fundamental areas of inquiry, and to prepare for more focused, and ultimately more specialized, education. It's not to see who can survive physical punishment best. If you are ready, emotionally and academically, to go to the next level, you should.</p>
<p>All of which has nothing to do with figuring out who the valedictorian should be. I don't care about that, except that if a school, or state, or whatever makes a big deal out of it, the method ought to reflect educational values, not cricket rules. (I know the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, but it wasn't by disqualifying the best batsmen.)</p>
<p>More seriously, I watched with concern over my younger child's high school career as he threatened to become a slave to his GPA and class rank. He had a lot of early success, and got a lot of kudos, strokes, and status for it. But then, he had a lot of anxiety that if he didn't fight for every point he would drop back in the pack and lose his status, suffer humiliation. It was not pretty to see. I worked very hard to try to get him to make decisions based on his education and his life, not his class rank.</p>
<p>I agree, except with regard to the "cricket rules" issue, since my spouse points out that in cricket, it is possible to win without completing an inning.</p>
<p>Sorry. "Cricket" is my shorthand for artificial, complex, difficult-to-fathom rules, and for strict adherence to them. There's a great scene in the WWII comic novel, How I Won The War (best known because John Lennon financed and starred in a bad movie version), in which two British soldiers maintain control over an entire village full of Greek Communists by insisting on explaining cricket to them.</p>
<p>Of course, baseball is probably worse. The third-strike passed-ball rule? The different things that can happen with a foul ball? Balks? But we're generally used to it.</p>