<p>Okay so I go to a fairly competitive public high school. it’s actually like a magnet school for science/technology students. most of our alumni end up becoming successful engineers or researchers of some sort or another.</p>
<p>given this incredibly competitive atmosphere, we all take tonz of ap/honors classes. it’s like the norm. our school offers six classes a day, and some ppl give up their lunch break to take additional aps. </p>
<p>so in september this year, i ran for student government secretary. i thought it would be nice to get involved with something like that senior year, and well yeah, it obviously looks attractive on a college app. but the thing is our school wants all student govt officers to take a civic duty training course during lunch, and i’m one of those kids who gave up my lunch break to take another class; introduction to mechanical engineering. it’s pretty basic stuff, it’s really not a big deal but i really wanted to take this class and see whether or not i want to continue pursuing engineering in college. plus it’s one of like five course options about future professional planning that is required for us to graduate. actual student govt meetings occur after school anyway, and i already took this civic duty training course my freshman year, so i figured i’d be fine not taking it again. plus our immediate class level advisor, not the general one overall, said the civic duty course was kind of a waste of time since we didn’t get any work done in there anyway.</p>
<p>but then last week i got a called to the office of the student govt advisor. and he told me if i don’t take the civic duty course, i can’t be an officer. i asked him why, given that no student govt work gets done in that course anyway, it all happens after school. he told me he wanted the officers to be equipped with necessary skills to lead the school successfully. and i told him i already took the course, but then he said i had to take it again if i wanted to hold onto my position. after which he proceeded to tell me about how other students gave up their ap/honors courses to take the training course and serve as officers and it wasn’t fair if i was able to serve without taking the course (again).</p>
<p>and then, here’s the shocker, this advisor tells me that taking my mechanical engineering class is something i could easily give up to serve as an officer. he didn’t think it was justified that i take it instead of a civic duty course. he then also tells me about how there’s more to life than taking 10 ap courses (i’m not in ten ap courses, geez!) now this advisor has no way of knowing my schedule and my specific courses without either a) talking to my counselor, or b) hearing it from another student.</p>
<p>in this case, he heard it from another student. another guy in my class who is currently treasurer of student govt. now this guy is really competitive, he takes a lot of aps but fails to do well in them. he’s a pretty outgoing/outspoken person though. i used to admire this guy, i thought he was a great leader regardless of his academic ability. but turns out he asked me my schedule the first week of school, and i being a total idiot, told him all the classes i was in. he then proceeded to report me to our advisor, and basically told the advisor how i was in “all academic” classes b/c i cared more about my class rank than taking the civic duty course, and consequently i lost my position.</p>
<p>at this point, the lost position is not a big deal to me. it really wasn’t going to do much for me in terms of college apps anyway, really i thought it would just be a fun thing to do. </p>
<p>but what really does bother me is how this guy i thought was a decent kid reported me and then how this advisor, in the most unprofessional way, starts challenging the courses i take and the validity of my taking those courses. really it’s totally hypocritical; there are a couple of kids who complain about our school’s reputation for being ap-crazed try and make it seem like NOT taking ap/honors is some noble endeavor when a lot of them are really just burning up with jealousy inside b/c they DO take just as many ap/honors as a lot of the high achievers…they just fail to do as well in them because they either don’t put the effort or find it’s beyond their ability at present to do well at that level of rigor. which is totally fine, not everyone can get ten 5’s a year on their AP exams, and there are plenty of other interests out there in the world to pursue. but it’s really not okay to try and slash out at someone who takes a lot of challenging courses and try to undermine their achievements right?</p>
<p>haha wow that was long and i’m totally ranting. i’m just frustrated, and i don’t know what to do about this. should i forget it and wait till senior year ends and i’m outta here? i really want to confront the advisor, but he’s a pretty respected teacher at my school and i don’t know how. honestly i think he’s just bitter b/c he’s one of the only teachers at my school who doesn’t teach any advanced classes (he teaches the civic duty course in question and a couple other tutoring support/study skills type workshops, basically most kids think he’s a total joke and doesn’t deserve his job). but i can’t just say that and i don’t want to leave the school on bad terms.</p>
<p>and i don’t know what to do about this guy… i’ve actually helped him on several occasions too, with homework and studying for tests when he was failing in a particularly challenging math course last year. i did it b/c he asked me to even though i was really busy. i helped him raise his grade too, from like an F to a decent B. i don’t want to stoop to his level and attack him or anything or spread rumors like he did to me. but i also don’t want to set a precedent…the guy who reported me today for not being in a course and made me lose my position could just as easily find some petty reason or other to report me to a college i’ve been accepted to and potentially get me rescinded.</p>
<p>so if anyone actually read through this, do you have any advice/suggestions/insights on how i might handle this whole situation? should i do anything or just sit on it and forget about it? thanks=)</p>