Class Rank Manipulation

I'm not sure when this phrase became a pejorative, but I keep hearing our lead counselor sneeringly intone the phrase when referring to students who try to fill their schedules with classes that carry extra grade point weight (more than 100 points maximum) and avoid classes that can only be averaged into their GPA at 100 points.

The counselor also derides students who express concern about and strive for the difference between a ninety-six class average and a 100 average.

The sneering comments are recurring phenomena. The emotion in the voice, frequently the volume in the voice, and certainly the denigrating tone in the voice seems more intense than the events would seem to merit.

School policy sets up a target, a sign of excellence, expressed in a cumulative grade point average computed to two decimal places. Policy allows students to select their classes. Additionally, the school assigns higher maximum grade points to some classes than to others.

When students consider the maximum grade points as part of their class selection criteria and attempt to load their schedules with those classes, this counselor invents and applies a pejorative phrase and spews it around like a poisonous criminal charge.

Is it appropriate to belittle students for making choices school policy allows in order to achieve a goal the school dangles before them? I think not.

Change the policy, or stop spewing poison.

I don’t know why this bothers me. Perhaps I just feel sadness when I hear a counselor speak with such harsh emotion about the children in our charge.

It’s as if the counselor has forgotten what it’s like to strive and work hard for the highest level of learning, for the top grades and highest academic honors. I remember working hard to be a “top student.” Surely, this counselor does also.

Even when I get a little irritated at some kid who is angst-ridden over the difference between a 98 and a 100, I try to counsel them about the superior value of deep lifetime learning over ephemeral accolades, rather than make light of their concern.

To belittle hard working students in a loud emotional voice would place me in the rancorous crowd of sour under-achievers who seek to elevate themselves, not by hard work, but by tearing down the best efforts of others. Surely, our lead counselor has nothing in common with that group.

Lesson Plans

This is an ephemeral venting of frustration.

I modify lessons every year, sometimes every class and every period to help students learn; but I loathe being required to make massive changes (that ultimately boil down to awkward format changes) on plans to fit into ever-changing documentation requirements generated by administrators who come in and out of the school and the district as if by an ever-turning revolving door.

The task takes away from the time I have to modify plans to accommodate individual student needs and to make lessons better for my students.