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]

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.)