<p>Ok, one more thing about Chorus - in D’s high school, they have to miss another class once a week to attend sectional rehearsals for chorus. The only excuse is if you’re absent, failing the other class, or have a test. If you are struggling but not failing, tough. If you have a review session for a test the next day, tough. If you have to work on a group project in another class, tough. So, many times this year, my daughter has had to choose between losing points in Chorus and hurting her grade in another class. And that’s probably the main reason she didn’t get an A: depending on how many sectionals there are in a marking period, each one can change your final grade from 3-5 points. This last marking period was short. Each sectional changed her grade by 5%. She had to miss one because she is struggling in algebra and had a big test review.</p>
<p>I think it’s ridiculous that she has to be penalized in one class or another - there is no compromise. I’ve spoken to the teacher, to the guidance counselor, and vice principal. And the attitude is “this is the way we do it.” All other teachers have to jump through hoops to accomodate the chorus teacher’s schedule. Yeah, music is important, but it’s an absurd situation.</p>
<p>Wow - couldn’t agree with you more. I don’t care what class it is, no teacher has the right to demand a student misses other class periods. That’s insane. I’d probably want to send a letter to the school board, although I might do it anonymously so it didn’t carry repercussions for my daughter. I’d keep it factual. Is this policy written down? I’d send a copy of the policy, include data about how many classes have to be missed during the year, multiplied by the number of kids in choir, for a total of how many classroom hours students are required to miss from math, english, history, science, etc., and that it’s inconsistent with the school district’s policy on attendance and achievement goals. </p>
<p>Miss class once a week? That’s insane! The other teachers must be livid. And the choir teacher is a selfish &*%^&(. Would he be supportive if other teachers required students to miss choir weekly for extra study time?</p>
<p>I’d probably tell my kids not to miss any other classes - skip sectionals every week, on principle. The only problem is, you know darn well the choir director would then have ti in for your daughter. </p>
<p>So, does she like the choir director? I can’t see how a teacher who would come up with that policy can be anything but an intimidating my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy, and I don’t see how that can be fun to work with.</p>
<p>Whew. I guess your post really struck a nerve with me.</p>
<p>Pinot Noir, we went through a whole big thing back in the fall. Although the course guide says you may miss “occasional” other classes for chorus practice, to me that’s not the same as every week. My daughter does not particularly like the chorus teacher and she wasn’t going to continue with chorus, but then decided at the last minute to continue in 10th grade. She likes singing and doesn’t want to lose that because of the situation. I told her it was up to her, but that this time she knows what she’s getting into. I don’t know if this is how it is with other schools, but the only way to be in chorus is to take it as your elective. It can’t just be an EC activity. So she had to make that commitment to chorus which precludes her from taking other electives. </p>
<p>On one hand, chorus is a good extra curricular activity and it’s one she honestly enjoys. On the other hand, she’s not a stellar student, and it really hurts her to have to constantly miss other classes. I left it up to her, but I’m not happy about it.</p>
<p>Just to echo what PN said, I would be seriously upset about this. SansSerif, even if you went all through this last year, I think I’d raise it again, and maybe try to enlist the help of other parents of chorus members. The squeaky wheel and all that. I do, however, also understand not wanting your D to feel the effects of creating a stink about this. It’s a sticky situation.</p>
<p>At my D’s school, chorus is a regular class. I wish it could be an after-school EC as well.</p>
<p>Yes, choir is a class here, not after school. Other than the big holiday shebang (and it is very big and very shebang-y ;)), choirs don’t take time outside of choir class unless you’re in one of the top choirs, which go to contests and so on. Freshmen are never in those two choirs (one is all women, one mixed), and sophomores rarely. I think S will probably make it junior year, so great - he’ll have a lot of extra time spent in rehearsals right when he’s loading up on AP classes. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>You’re daughter’s getting a valuable lesson in prioritizing, time management, working with inflexible people, weighing pros and cons, and she gets to sing as well. Not too bad!</p>
<p>Ok, thought I would pop back in. S got the instrumental bass position for the jazz choir. He just texted me, and he is mighty thrilled. He is going to be a mighy busy (but very happy) bassist next year.</p>
<p>sanserif–that is a bit mind blowing about the missing a class once a week for choir. Our situation is similar to PinotNoir’s in that the choir only misses school for competitions and whatnot. </p>
<p>S has one more week. Today was his first day of high school sans older bro.</p>
<p>SansSerif – Missing other classes weekly for choir sounds completely untenable, especially as the academics become more serious in the sophomore and junior years. If my kid were in that situation, I’d look for an outside-of-school way for her to sing. Maybe you can find a church choir, community college or nearby university, or other community group. Groups like that usually meet evenings/weekends, outside of school hours, and they’re often very welcoming to HS’ers. </p>
<p>My D2015 dances at an outside-of-school dance studio, and <em>not</em> on her HS’s dance team for exactly the same reason. The school team requires the kid to devote two class periods daily (e.g., the equivalent of one PE period and one academic class period) – thereby limiting the kids from taking a competitive university-qualifying academic load. Plus it requires lots of after-school practices and performances that cut into study time without any consideration to the academic calendar (e.g., this past year they had a 3-day competition the weekend before first semester finals!). On the other hand, her outside studio is more flexible schedule-wise and generally more accommodating. (e.g., they usually offer a choice of competition and performance dates/times that can work-around academics). The outside-of-school dance studio makes it feasible for my D to balance dance with serious academics.</p>
<p>momsings - Congrats to you & your DS! That’s a very impressive accomplishment.</p>
<p>SansSerif - That’s one bizarre story about your DD’s Chorus class. Can’t actually believe the core academic teachers would tolerate such a set-up, let alone the parents. But your DD is obviously a trooper if she wants to persevere with Chorus into 10th. I’m not familiar w/Chorus at our DS’s HS, but all the groups are very good. It’s my impression that there’s lots of work involved, but that an A is based on attendance & effort. I believe most students get an A in Chorus, Orchestra & Band if they show up & work. However, the “showing-up” part involves a lot of time. Band appears to be the most time-consuming and Orchestra is the least. Our DS15 is in Orchestra and I have no idea how the Band kids manage the time commitment, but the serious students somehow do.</p>
<p>DS15 was out the door at 8:30AM today for a practice ACT at our community center, using a retired test. He wasn’t too psyched about it (ha, ha) but he didn’t complain. However, he did virtually no prep, largely due to his schedule, so we’ll see how it goes. It will be a good diagnostic tool. He took the ACT in 7th and the PLAN in 9th, but it will be interesting to see how he does on the ACT now, under test-like conditions. A Nanny & Tutoring company sponsors this & subsidizes it, mostly to screen for kids they’d like to be nannies or tutors. But it’s a great deal and no real pressure, so I was happy DS was willing to take the test today. </p>
<p>Happy Father’s Day to all 2015 dads and male role models out there!</p>
<p>Yeah, an A isn’t a given in Chorus at all. There are several written tests, as well as performance tests. Seniors were available to tutor the freshmen on music theory and they’re the reason she even got a B. I think other teachhers get irritated when 3 or 4 kids out of 20 have to miss a class because of chorus, but I don’t think they can fo a damn thing about it. The other parents don’t seem to mind, though. They just seem to think that’s the way it is.</p>
<p>^^^ ditto here, except finals are tues-wed-thurs. D2015 spent much of the weekend griping about how unfair it is that she has to study when D2012 is done (since senior finals finished last friday, and graduation is this wednesday late afternoon). D2012 says it’s payback for all the years she had heavy homework while D2015 still had a lighter load in the lower grades.</p>
<p>Luckily it’s all quite good-natured. Both girls are keenly aware and more-than-a-little sad that these are their last days together, as D2012 is moving out next weekend…</p>
<p>Oh my - I just dipped in her and can see that I need to spend more time - I tend to do all my DS15 posting on the 2012 thread. (Hi everyone!) Lots of back reading to do, I see to catch up. Happy finals week to all the mini-wackaloons!</p>
<p>I’m surprised to see so many of you with kids still finishing up. When do they go back? My D’s summer is shortened this year, and she will go back mid-August. They are shifting the school year so that they can take finals prior to Christmas break, and then they will finish at the end of May. I like that schedule better, since she can relax during the holidays.</p>
<p>D15 did not get her last 2 days off to a great start. She fell back asleep and didn’t get moving until 15 minutes before we need to leave. Our morning routine is that I wake her on my way to the shower and she gets up, makes her own breakfast, etc. </p>
<p>But today when I came out of the bathroom, it was clear that she hadn’t made it upstairs. She made it to school on time but it was just a little extra stress.</p>
<p>Yes - but it will be a looooonnggg week to push through to the finish. I am feeling glad that they decided to hold graduation inside this year - the traditional outside date is today!!! Pouring rain. It was pushed back to Wednesday to get the inside venue.</p>
<p>suzy100 – our school district usually starts the Thursday after Labor Day. First semester finals are in late January. District policy states no HW over winter break (nor spring break, nor summer) but the honors/AP teachers always get around that by assigning stuff on the Wed or Thurs, so that supposedly the kids can get it done before the official start of break. Yeah, right – the kids can supposedly finish their 10pp research paper in one or two nights.</p>
<p>A couple of years back our traditional start date fell on Rosh Hashanah, so the district moved start date forward by 2 weeks into late August. I thought that worked great, and I know the AP classes appreciated having extra instruction time before the May testing. I was really disappointed when the district returned to the usual later start date the following year. It may have had something to do with union negotiations. Alternatively, it may have had to do with budget uncertainty. It’s very hard on the education system to have the CA state legislature wrangling over the budget well into each summer.</p>