Should one of the administrators of my high school, let’s call it “BS High”, approach me and ask me for my opinion of the school, my reply would be, “What is it you want to hear me say, and what are you going to do with it?” The reasoning for this answer is this: should my opinion actually be heard and actions taken, I would stay and state my case. However, if it’s just a ruse to keep the student body amused and blissfully unaware of the fact they have little or no say in how the school is run, then I would simply walk away.

As of the beginning of February, which was also the beginning of the new semester, I have had no respect for the school administration. First, they replaced their most popular and efficient scheduling methods with an archaic system, which they joyfully referred to as “computer registration”. By this method of “computer registration”, you would complete registration materials roughly two to three months before the new semester, when your schedule would be “refreshed”. Theoretically speaking, this extremely long period of time would also allow time for schedules to be reviewed and corrected, should any computer error result in an incomplete schedule. One would think so, but such was not the case.
In a system where counselors are supposed to provide guidance and assistance to students, the only students that receive such guidance and assistance are those who are in some sort of trouble, be it with the law or their family. Therefore, those students who are mostly independent and only call upon the counselors for help with complex matters concerning unknown school policies, college or career opportunities, receive little or no help; their existence known only to the counselor as a glowing name on a computer screen. This system, already severely impersonal for most of the student body, was thrown into even more chaos with the introduction of “computer scheduling”. The four counselors and a few assistants proceeded to pour the over 2,000 names of the students at “BS High” into the “computer scheduling” system, where a program would assign students to classes according to the subject selections they had made. The problem was, the program was not perfect -- rather, far from it. Many of the schedules that spewed forth from the system were incomplete, leaving students with nowhere to go for a portion of their day, although they had selected more than enough classes to fill the empty slots in their schedule.
Upon receiving incomplete schedules, students immediately headed for the counseling office, where such matters would be handled in an “orderly fashion”. Lo and behold, the counselors had locked themselves within the office, perhaps fearing the mob that stood outside the door. Many more students had other problems with their schedules, mostly concerning the fact that many of the teachers at BSH were, in fact, VIP. This term, VIP, does not refer to the popular acronym of “very important person”, but rather, to that of “very inept people”. Of each of the four core departments that comprised the 9th grade, only one teacher in each department was actually considered “good”.
To make matters worse, the entire Language Arts program had undergone restructuring that could be, in some ways, equated to the failed power deregulation experiment of California. The Language Arts program, formerly separated into Honors and Regular classes, had become entirely honors. Rumor has it that a former principal of BSH considered it an experiment in an effort to make BSH look good on paper, boasting it had the highest number of Honors students and classes, and to bring test scores up. Mr. Principal, if you’re out there, you blew it. What we have now is a defunct Language Arts program that combines students with college-level reading ability with those who can barely read at the third grade level in the same class. The result: prime breeding grounds for ignorance, stupidity, and boredom. As one teacher put it, “Saying ‘every student’s an honor student’ is like saying ‘no student is an honor student’.” He could not be more correct. The difference between the Language Arts program of BSH and the deregulation project in California is that the failure of the project in California will cause people to bring back the old way, when power was affordable and reliable, whereas the Language Arts program of BSH will most likely remain in a state commonly known as “limbo”.
The Language Arts department is not the only one plagued with problems. The History department is also in trouble. Only two teachers currently offer Honors World History classes. One is considered “very good”, while the other, is… not. The “other teacher” recently admitted to her classes that, “I haven’t taught World History II in eight years… I’ve never taught it in Honors.” To make an analogy, it’s similar to taking a top-of-the-line computer from today’s market, and comparing it to the 486 of the early 1990’s. One is effective and fast, while the other is not.

On a more personal note, I, myself, had an experience (well, my dad, rather) with the counselors or my school. My dad went in one day in an effort to get my schedule changed. Here’s what happened.
Upon arrival at my school, my dad wasn’t exactly “tickled pink” at what he saw, but that wasn’t what he was there for. As he approached the counseling office, he saw the desk they had set up outside the office, which I had described as, “the equivalent of a bunker with sandbags and a machine gun.” He proceeded to enter the counseling office, where the secretarial counselor (who does little or nothing all day) attempted to prevent him from seeing a counselor. My dad said, “I called this counselor, and he said I didn’t need an appointment, and could come right in to see him if I wanted.” Reluctantly, the secretarial counselor let my dad through, where the counselor he came to see proceeded to feed him a load of bull. The conversation that flowed went a little like this:

Counselor: Well, it seems he’s doing quite well; I don’t really have to worry about him. I only have to worry about him if he gets in trouble or gets pregnant or something. If he gets his grades higher and keeps them there, I can put his schedule together earlier in the scheduling period, and hopefully give him better classes. (I have a 4.0 – how high do you want me to go? I must be mistaken or something… I thought this was computer registration… Where were you during the last scheduling period? I had a 4.0 then, too, but I got some pretty sad classes anyway!)
My dad: Oh, so he has to get in trouble or get pregnant before you’ll see him? I’ve seen his report card – it’s as high as it can go. How far do you want him to go?
Counselor: Oh, nononono… Don’t get me wrong – he can still see me, it’s just I don’t have to worry about him. Just tell him to keep his grades up, and I can put together his schedule early. You see, right now, I wanted him to have math early in the morning… (What a load of bull! What happened to the whole “computer registration” thing?)

I’ve drawn a few conclusions from my recent experiences in high school. First, two things retard intelligence and the expansion of knowledge: ignorance, and boredom. Coincidentally, both exist in disgustingly high amounts at BSH. Second, high school was not meant for those who were educated throughout elementary and middle (junior high) school in an accelerated program and repeatedly ranked within the top 10\% of their class. Also, time is precious; don’t let people waste yours.
I’ve also developed a four-year plan for myself, and it’s really quite simple. Get out of high school as quickly as possible, using any means possible to do so in style and with full honors. One final note: high school ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

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Ever had a brief discussion with the vice principal? Or any staff member within the office for that matter! "Treat like shit" is the correct phrase to be applied to a situation like that. I went there because I was presistantly late, and they greet me with a "What do you want? Oh you're that guy they sent. Go visit the vice down the hall.".

What amuses me even more is how a 20 member militia (they act like a militia anyways) can control OVER 1700 people. It's pathetic, and it's being protected by education systems and laws, connected to the government (here I go again).

2 classes out of 40 is all it takes to take down my high school. Just 2. It doesn't even matter if they're grade 9's or 12's.

Also, counsellors really can't care less. "It's my job" is really another way of saying "I'm getting paid for it". It's not their duty, with their consent, and their wanting to- to help the "problem kids" at their workplace. It's their job. Not more, really.

High school sucks shit. It's one of the worst places in the world you can be in. You're under their control, yet they want you to make you're own descision, AND they treat you like an inferior.

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Ever had a brief discussion with the vice principal?

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What amuses me even more is how a 20 member militia (they act like a militia anyways) can control OVER 1700 people.
2 classes out of 40 is all it takes to take down my high school. Just 2. It doesn't even matter if they're grade 9's or 12's.

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And they yell at you whether you like it or not. One day when I'm talking to the vice again I'm going to ask her why she treats me like the way she does.

The immediate assumption is that I did something bad and everything's my fault.

Even so, though- the yelling doesn't render people here invalid. They ignore and just laugh.

Aside from that, if they had even 10 people attempting to stop them as a group they'd give up almost right away or just call the cops.

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Originally posted by solid:
Aside from that, if they had even 10 people attempting to stop them as a group they'd give up almost right away or just call the cops.

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Yeah... Sometimes the cops are already there.

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our schools main beef is with the attendance system. we still do class registering the "old fashioned" way. write down the classes you want on a card, get teachers to sign off that you can be in them (if they need to), then turn it in to the counselor, and the counselor usually gets it done. we also have fewer people though, like maybe 1000-1200, and 6 counselors...but our attendance system is whack. if you miss school, you have to bring in a note (you cant have your parents call, you have to have a note, even though its easier to forge a note than pretend to be your mom). if you get 3 unexcused absences, you fail the class. if your get three tardies(before 20 minutes late) you get an unexcused absence. if you come to class 20 minutes late, you get an unexcused absence. every class you miss, the teacher is supposed to call your parents. not one teacher for all 7 classes. 7 teachers are supposed to call. yes. your parents need to know 7 fucking times. even if they call in an excuse. "hi, johnny wont be at school today, hes sick"..."hello?""hi, johnny wasnt in my class today" X 7! yeah. you have 2 days to turn in a note, or else your unverified absence becomes unexcused. if you miss 4(unexcused) days of school, you get threatened by the court that your missing too much school. if you miss i think 6 days, you and your parents are called into court. one intelligent parent (i dont mean that sarcastically, i would probably do the same thing) didnt show up, and they were arrested for contempt. so basically, if your late 9 times to a class, you fail. silly me, i thought grades were important. one of our vice principals (we have a smart one or two) was saying how he thought the system was dumb (its countywide) and that theoretically, if you dont show up to class, you should fail anyway. i personally think its fucked up to penalize people who can not show up and still do well. i had a friend last year who never showed up to comp sci, or rather, he always came late, checked in with the teacher, and then went off to psychology. he got all the work done though, and if our teacher didnt also believe the system was stupid, would have failed the course. what the fuck does it matter if we are in the class or not? its just dumb. so to sum up, our administration isnt that bad, some teachers are, but the attendance policy sucks.

oh yeah, one more thing. the attendance office computers cant mess with the teacher's computers (where they have to enter in the roll every day, wasting 5 minutes of class time), so if they need to change something, they have to send memos to each other. that makes sense, right?

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Absences? No fails. Call the school/Give note.

(Just to let you know, there are plenty of problems with school here that I could complain about, but why bother? If I complain about every single stage of my life, wanting to be at the next stage, then I'll always be unhappy (and eventually wishing I was dead).)

My point is this.
Unless you have your own business there will always be untrained morons that can tell you what to do.

Me, i listen to them, tell them how special i think they are (short school bus special) and do what i have to do to make sure my customers are happy.

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Leaving the trees was a bad idea.
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