<p>I have wanted to compete in one of the science olympiads for several months and studied very hard for it. However, the teacher who organized the test last year has not done anything this year. A few weeks prior to the registration deadline, I expressed my interest in the olympiad, and he said that it would be an activity he'd like to pursue. One week after the registration deadline passed, I sent him an email, asking when the exam would be held. No response for 6 days. Today I went in and asked --- turned out that he had missed the deadline, and there wasn't much interest in the olympiad anyway. Guess my interest doesn't matter, and responding to my email is meaningless, no apology to me, no offer of help, and offering to "email a few teachers" only after I mentioned I want to find another place that could give the exam.</p>
<p>Well, I have only a few school days left to find a nearby high school who has not administered the exam yet and is willing to let me join in. My parents are ready to knock the school down, because I have studied months and have no opportunity to even take the exam. They plan on writing an email to the dept head, different person from the teacher in question, asking for her help in finding a local school (I initially planned on just writing emails to nearby schools myself, though as a student...not much clout) and at the same time criticizing the teacher for neglect and irresponsibility. He will be one of my AP teachers senior year and is coordinator of our Science Team, which I was planning on being captain senior year (though he never seemed to value me highly...note the apathy to my requests) Is this an overreaction --- especially at the possibility of jeopardizing a relationship I need to have for next year (he may not even pick me as captain even if I don't allow my parents to go through with this), or is it fair since I will have wasted a huge opportunity and easily 100+ hours? Since I am a junior, this is my last chance (and first) to enter into a competition like this before college applications go out.</p>
<p>One thing you don't want to do, no matter how good it might make you feel at the time, is burn any bridges. If you will need this teacher's help in the future or plan to have any kind of relationship with him, even as a student in his class, I would advise you to NOT criticize the teacher, especially in writing. This will cause you much more trouble all of next year than just finding a new place to take the test.</p>
<p>I do understand your frustration though. </p>
<p>I think your parents should CALL, not email, nearby high schools and ask to talk to a vice principal in charge of curriculum. These are the administrators that are tuned in to which teacher is handing which EC. Don't just leave a message, they need to speak to someone. Ask them for help in getting you a spot to test. Call a handful of high schools at the same time until they find a spot. The important priority now is for you to be able to test. </p>
<p>In the future, when something is very important to you, seek out the people in charge in person or on the phone. Email is notoriously easy to ignore, especially for very busy teachers. Never rely on it.</p>
<p>Teachers are people too and running a bunch of EC type stuff is not required in most cases--they volunteer with no extra pay. Try to find another school and let it go.</p>
<p>I would get the department head to help you find a school for you to enter the competition - make them feel bad for missing the deadline, but don't go overboard because you may need this teacher next year. It is a shame, after all of your hard work. No, you are not reacting. You have every right to be mad, but it won't help your cause by criticizing the teacher too much.</p>
<p>I would email/call asking for help finding a school you could join as you are very interested in it and have been studying for it. I would not call the teacher neglectful or irresponsible. It is an extra curricular for the teacher also, probably unpaid, and not something he has to do especially if there was not a lot of interest so there is no neglect and no irresponsibility. Criticizing him in this way would probably set up the back of the head of the department head and make him less interested in helping you out.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone above. Do whatever you can to make it possible for you to take the exam, but leave it at that. Anything beyond that is frankly vindictive and likely to be counterproductive long-term. It's easy to lash out and find fault with teachers (I know I did in high school, sometimes for very good reason) but it gets you NOTHING.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses so far!
I had the same feeling too, that criticizing a teacher that I will have lots of contact with in the future would be a bad idea. I definitely will let the dept head know at the very least that I am asking other schools to help me out, so she wont be surprised with anything --- maybe even ask for her help?</p>
<p>Calling does sound like a good idea, especially with parents, but should my parents be the ones calling local schools or the dept head? Dept head may have some connections with science teachers, but she obviously wouldnt be able to speak to vice principals, like my parents would be able to. Also, I do not know if principals would know about the olympiad, though they would act, whereas science dept heads may know of it but it would be hard to reach them during the school day.</p>
<p>" have wanted to compete in one of the science olympiads for several months and studied very hard for it. However, the teacher who organized the test last year has not done anything this year. A few weeks prior to the registration deadline, I expressed my interest in the olympiad, and he said that it would be an activity he'd like to pursue. One week after the registration deadline passed, I sent him an email, asking when the exam would be held. "</p>
<p>I agree with others that you should try to compete via another school.</p>
<p>I also think you shouldn't hold anger at the teacher, though I empathize with you at feeling that at least the teacher could have apologized.</p>
<p>As a former college prof who in addition to teaching, advised the campus newspaper, I have such appreciation for how much work high school teachers do -- just to teach the hundreds of kids most have to teach each day. Any additional task takes a lot of extra work, something that it can be hard to appreciate until you've been in the situation of teaching classes, writing tests, correcting homework, going to mandatory administrative meetings, filling out endless paperwork, writing recommendations, handling calls from students' families -- plus taking care of your own home and family responsibilities.</p>
<p>It would have been good if instead of just asking if the teacher would sponsor the olympics, you had offered the teacher some concrete help, not left everything in the teacher's lap. This could have included making flyers to attract students to the test reminding the teacher about the deadline and doing anything else that would have helped the test be scheduled.</p>
<p>This is the case with virtually any idea that a person has that would rely upon others' assistance. Don't just ask people to start a program, advise an organization, etc. Pitch in and do what you can to help -- including making sure that the person who (for whatever reason) has to be officially in charge stays abreast of deadlines, and has in hand the information they need (such as in your case the contact info for the Olympiads).</p>
<p>Have your parents call. They would be much better at it and they would get more attention. Once your are 18, it's a different story. But I have to admit, I have called my older daughter's college to discuss issues when I am not happy with them.</p>
<p>Herman,
My S did this work himself as a freshman or sophomore, contacting other schools that held exam.Eventually, he found a sponsor at school & began a math club. The teacher drove them to competitions. Within a year, they were able to attend state contests. He never discussed with me, but handled on his own. </p>
<p>My advice is get busy and make calls yourself. If you have a friend that is interested, split the work.</p>
<p>I agree with what others have said about overworked teachers and extracurriculars (as an overworked teacher who sponsors extracurriculars).
:-)</p>
<p>That said, rather than call local schools at random, I'd check the Science Olympiad website and check the state organizations for participating schools, (and probably the sponsor contact as well), and contact someone you KNOW is involved in this event. </p>
<p>I have a different take on this than many others on here. Maybe I'm just grumpy this morning.</p>
<p>Yes overworked teachers. I agree, they often do a ton and they should be appreciated more. But I don't accept the "but they are volunteeering and so we should be thankful for anything". As a professor, I do tons of those things for our students, most of my colleagues do as well. It's part of the job, not an 'extra' or 'off hours' I'm not paid for. Supervising clubs or independent studies, writing letters of rec, judging competitions, emailing, advising students, and so on and so on. Yes lots of work, especially when you have say 3 new preps and 150 students in a term, various committees and running a research lab. But to me, its part and parcel of my job and often as important, sometimes more important, than my in class work. And like most professionals, the job was never meant to be 9-5; I'm not paid by the hour, I'm paid a salary to be effective in my job and that is to me part of my job. </p>
<p>But my main point, and I think what bothers the OP so much, is not that this person didn't sponsor it per se, but how they handled it. Not the outcome but the process. I agree there is no obligation on the part of a particular teacher to sponsor a particular something (and this particular teacher may be very overworked and maybe every teacher there is overwhelmed). But, if they couldn't do it, give a heads up. Fly an email. Maybe suggest a different teacher or direct them to other schools. If there wasn't interest, let those that showed interest know in advance. Offer an adequate explanation, an apology, or a bit of empathy. Follow through. Just a bit of common sense respect and modeling of profession behavior. </p>
<p>To the OP, I agree it is frustrating but probably a good experience too that has taught you something useful you can use in the future. These kinds of things likely will happen again, at school or at work or with your peers in teams, but now you will be more equipped. Ask yourself, if you could have known in advance that this might happen, what would you have done differently? Apply that answer to your future situations. Maybe way more valuable than the contest.</p>
<p>OP, one thing I learnt in life is that you must take control of things that are important to you. </p>
<p>You wrote "A few weeks prior to the registration deadline, I expressed my interest in the olympiad, and he said that it would be an activity he'd like to pursue. One week after the registration deadline passed, I sent him an email, asking when the exam would be held. No response for 6 days. Today I went in and asked --- turned out that he had missed the deadline, and there wasn't much interest in the olympiad anyway. " You should have made sure you obtain a clear answer days before the deadline.</p>
<p>DD had a similar situation in one of organized event last year. Other than herself, not much interest from the senior who was running it. The end result - nothing happened. I told her the same thing I am telling you now. If you want it, make it happen.</p>
<p>This year, DD got the help from DS and they baked cookies and sent out flyers. We will see what the end result will be. I know one thing for sure that DD will be on the team if the event takes place.</p>
<p>
[quoteBut my main point, and I think what bothers the OP so much, is not that this person didn't sponsor it per se, but how they handled it. Not the outcome but the process. I agree there is no obligation on the part of a particular teacher to sponsor a particular something (and this particular teacher may be very overworked and maybe every teacher there is overwhelmed). But, if they couldn't do it, give a heads up. Fly an email. Maybe suggest a different teacher or direct them to other schools. If there wasn't interest, let those that showed interest know in advance. Offer an adequate explanation, an apology, or a bit of empathy. Follow through. Just a bit of common sense respect and modeling of profession behavior.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Starbright - I don't think anyone would disagree with what you are saying. But the OPs main question was how to go on from here and and, though the teacher did let him down, having his parents complain to the head of department "criticizing the teacher for neglect and irresponsibility" does not seem the way to go.</p>
<p>"I agree there is no obligation on the part of a particular teacher to sponsor a particular something (and this particular teacher may be very overworked and maybe every teacher there is overwhelmed). But, if they couldn't do it, give a heads up. "
They literally may have forgotten. I'd be curious about how the student asked the teacher to sponsor the Olympiad. Was it a casual conversation -- a "by the way" kind of conversation -- or did the student initially e-mail the teacher or give the teacher anything in writing?</p>
<p>As a former college prof, I know that students often ask profs and teachers to sponsor things that may sound like great ideas to the student, but typically the students don't follow through. This also should include following up with the teacher before deadlines to make sure the teacher knows one is still interested.</p>
<p>Was the student expecting the teacher to get the materials, proctor an exam and do all of the arrangements without any follow-up by the student? I can understand why the student -- who hasn't that much familiarity with the work world -- might expect the teacher to do that. However, in reality, that's not the way the world works.</p>
<p>When I look at the Science Olympiad site, it seems like being a sponsor is a lot of work, and I don't think it was realistic for the student to expect that the teacher would have taken on all of that work just because one student expressed interest.</p>
<p>And this doesn't indicate to me that the teacher had expressed a commitment to the project: "I expressed my interest in the olympiad, and he said that it would be an activity he'd like to pursue."</p>
<p>Hi herman,
If you want to compete in math olympiad (amc/aime/usamo), it is easy to find a nearby school; if you want to compete in Physics Olympiad, it is already too late, the first exam was due on Feb.5. As I know, it is hard to find a place to take the Chemistry Olympiad. However it should be easy to find a nearby school to take the Biology Olympiad.</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom and Northstarmom and others- you are so right. </p>
<p>I didn't mean to suggest student or parents should complain. I was just reacting to some other posts and hadn't had my coffee yet. </p>
<p>And yes, completely agree too on the role of hte student, following up, and being responsible to see it through if its going to happen (I was sort of trying to hint at that in my last paragraph). </p>
<p>It's easy for students to lose sight of the fact that faculty are pulled in so many directions and also who knows what transpired in the interaction (s).</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the very useful responses so far.</p>
<p>I contacted the national director of the olympiad, who btw, was extremely cold. She was very condescending, not willing to disclose information on which area schools are administering (confidentiality?) and stating bluntly that "it was too late" that I can't "take the exam at another school"... she didn't specify why, nothing against the rules...</p>
<p>At this point, very few area schools are offering the exam (this was the open exam for biology). My dept head was very generous in offering her help, willing to vouch for me if I found a school. The deadline of administering this test is the 13th, so I may not make it. One of the previous posts said it best - that what I learned from this may have helped me more than being a semifinalist (had I taken the exam, this was almost a sure thing, but past that....) would ever have done. Surely acceptance to a school like Harvard wouldn't be based on the addition of a USABO semifinalist award. I made several mistakes that I will not make again.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The initial convo with the teacher was not direct enough, NSM, it did have a casual tone.</p></li>
<li><p>I should have contacted him "formally" before the deadline. I put too much trust in the fact that he would take care of everything for me.</p></li>
<li><p>Like previous posters have said, I could have volunteered to help. Though this does not take nearly as much time as some science-team related activities, he may not have wanted to fill out the forms. I have the money to pay for registration myself.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>This was a very disappointing experience, and I may choose not to do this next year because of it. However, this kind of life lesson is invaluable. I guess I can always look on the bright side and see that I learned something that I would have to learn someday, and luckily it was for a little high school science contest.</p>
<p>Sponsoring a Science Olympiad team is a lot of work, and not something that it makes sense to take on, unless you have a full team complement--usually about 15 students who are interested.</p>
<p>However, since it's been clarified that the olympiad mentioned by the OP is the USABO, "sponsoring" the activity consists of ordering and administering an exam, to the best of my knowledge. I don't think it was unrealistic of the OP to think that the teacher might have done that, even with just a casual expression of interest. I think my teachers would all have done that, for a single interested student. Did the teacher know how long the OP had been preparing for the exam?</p>
<p>The OP has a mature take on this issue. Sorry about the missed opportunity, though! Hope the OP will have a future use for what's been learned (the biology as well as the logistics).</p>
