HAHAHAHAHA

[bedlamsbard]

Are students working too hard for a high school diploma? Students and school districts weigh the costs and benefits of capstone projects.

YES. YES. A THOUSAND TIMES YES. *goes back to the novel of doom*

Comments

[mentalhygiene.livejournal.com]

If you do something where the capstone is actually an integrated part of the curriculum, and not simply another thing heaped onto students (like lions unto gladiators), then it works.

Experiential learning, for example -- my friend went to the regional Agricultural High School, and part of the curriculum for her "major" (environmental sciences, I think) were various short trips leading up to a long canoe trip along a local river. The project was a culmination of things, and relevant to student interest and to the academic curriculum.

I like portfolios. I like the idea better than formal letter grades, or AP classes, or doing endless worksheets and essays for homework. It seems so much more concrete than "I took 4 AP courses!" etc., etc.

I feel for Maine, I do. Honestly. But I wish "omg, college" didn't have to be the be-all and end-all of things. Unfortunately it's a necessity for a lot of jobs now. *grudge* I have a good number of classmates who don't want to be there, can't afford to be there, they're just shouldering it because they need to get the good job. (frankly, I don't "want" to be there either, but I actually do enjoy the material and the meager learning that goes on.)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

See, I wouldn't have a problem with it if they weren't throwing the goddamn senior project at us. And changing it. I mean, what the hell, you don't go to seniors and say, "Well, not only do you have to pass these tests, take these classes, get this number of credits, but you also have to do this. Oh, and all this other stuff that we're making up as we go along."

I mean, the Yale student in the article, Gordon Siu -- from what I can tell about his school's capstone project? Not as intense as ours. Nowhere close. And they had it in place for a while before this article was written, too.

Like, when I say, "No one knows what's going on," about senior project, I'm not kidding. We don't know what's going on, because they're always changing it. And the thing is that it's not relevant. I'm writing a novel. A couple of my friends are doing senior recitals. I know several people who are writing music. Several people are doing career explorations. A lot of the boys are rebuilding engines. One of my friends is putting together a family tour of Kittitas Valley. Someone else is making a scrapbook. A girl I went to elementary school with is making a dress. One of my best friends put together an English high tea.

And the thing is, the students who aren't motivated aren't going to do something that's the be-all, end-all of their lives and motivations. They will do something easy. That's the way it is. The high-achieving students are the ones who take the honors and AP classes, the ones who do sports, the ones who do extracurriculars, the ones applying to a lot of colleges and for a lot of scholarships -- and the ones who choose the most complicated projects. Me, for example. I have two AP classes this year, I applied to ten schools, I'm in band and jazz band, which means I'm in pep band, I'm in orchestra, I take private lessons, I'm president of the Creative Writing Club -- and I'm writing a 100K novel for senior project. We'll get it done -- but we might just burn out doing it. I mean, there's a point where it's literally a choice of, "Do I want to do my homework or work on my novel? Do I want to fill out scholarship applications or write my reflection letter/work on my PowerPoint/put my portfolio together? What's going to get me closest to graduation?"

Huh. I should probably go back to typing up my novel.

[mentalhygiene.livejournal.com]

Changing the requirements for any assignment -- unless you have a really good reason like, "the museum burned down and we can't go there" -- is just fucking asinine, and your admin should be BEATEN WITH HEAVY THINGS. Because they are clearly driving all of you batshit.

A novel is relevant to real-life in the sense of: you can plan, pay attention to detail, you can write, you are aware of people in their surroundings. All fun things. There's relevance and showcasing your individual talents.

If I were a college, I don't want a burned-out jack of all trades. I want someone with a passion. I don't care what the passion is, per se -- hopefully something I, the college, offer a major in ;) -- but something the student just gets vibrant over. AP classes have struck me -- from the secondhand experience of my brothers, as my HS didn't have them -- as "same course, more damn work". The "high-achievers" will make themselves insane doing everything they're "supposed to do". This is, of course, anecdata and YMMV and all. But I'd rather see a student with some level of practical life experience, a good solid base of core knowledge, and a passion for their talents -- that's well rounded. I don't generally like ultra-achievers any more than I like someone who thinks the civil war was in 1940.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

What about scrapbooking? What about high tea? What about career exploration (which is required for a required class, by the way; I know, I'm in the class right now)? When they first announced this project, I was actually a little bit excited about it. I thought that the senior project should be the culmination of our interests and our passions, taking it to the next logical step, and that's how I approached it when I wrote my proposal letter. But it's not, and the administrator in charge of the project is contradicting the original proposal as she's changing/adding things. We're literally being told, "In your presentation, you have to say this, in this order, about this, or you will fail. And if you fail, you will not graduate." They're not being clear about deadlines, or requirements; the last experience of turning things in before they gave us the latest requirements included, "Oh my God, do they want the paper paperclipped or stapled?" Because we didn't know. And they were turning papers back if they weren't done exactly.

The "high-achievers" will make themselves insane doing everything they're "supposed to do".

This is true. This was me last year; we're at the point where it's me again this year. (Hi, let's look at how many times I broke down crying and hyperventilating last year compared to the previous years and this year. A lot, and I was crazy busy.) But the thing is that these colleges tell us we have to do these things. They say, "Be passionate," but they also say, "Take every AP and honors class your school offers and get As. Do extracurriculars. Be involved." I'm a high school senior; I've applied to college, and I've been to college prep things. This is literally what they tell us, especially schools like the Ivies, or Stanford, or other private universities.

(Oh, you know what gets me about the article? The project the student's complaining about? Is basically the same thing our culminating project was before they dropped that and made us do senior project instead.)