I’ve been on this site for over ten years. I wish I had a dime for everyone who has said something similar to “I’m thinking of not taking this class because the teacher sucks.”
The solution: like it or lump it. For the rest of his life, your kid is going to have to learn to deal with people who may not be great at their jobs. We all do. And for every person who someone says is bad at their job, someone else may not think so.
The teacher is still employed and so they must be doing something right. Maybe they are not a very nice person, but if everyone was failing the class or there was some kind of professional misconduct, I’m sure the district would be doing something about it. Ensure your son is aware that he can get tutoring or go to extra help if he struggles in the class. Blaming the teacher before the class even begins isn’t the best way forward.
My wife is a high school guidance counselor and she strongly recommends all good+ students heading to college to take physics. Colleges are looking for kids to take challenging courses.
An old friend called her this weekend for help. Tufts withdrew an offer of admission LAST WEEK for a student that dropped AP Physics post-application, and did not tell them.
There’s likely more to the story, but since Tufts doesn’t specifically require physics or X years of science, IMO the issue was not telling the university that they dropped the course. Tufts is not unique in not liking surprises like that. Senior year courses are listed on the application. Decisions are made, in part, on course selection. The application signature is validation that everything in the application is accurate.
Lesson fot the future — advise the college in advance of any plans to drop a class
Why assume that a crappy teacher naturally gives bad grades? Those two things aren’t correlated at all. The top X% will get As unless something is very badly wrong with the school’s grading policy.
Unless you plan to do an external exam (eg AP) and even then it won’t matter since colleges in the US don’t make their offers conditional on AP scores.
Don’t require three what? Sciences? I think most do, at least in the top 100-150 or so. But we don’t know what else the student has done unless I missed it.
Or don’t drop the class. My wife says it is her school’s policy to strongly counsel against it. But if they do, the student is told that they should be the ones contacting the colleges.
Pure conjecture on my part, but I would think dropping the class would have worse outcomes than one poor grade post-application.
I usually look at the auto admit college requirements as a benchmark for minimum. ASU require 3 lab sciences, as does U Arizona. Iowa State just says 3 years science. I’m also guessing they are looking at higher level colleges but then the requirements should be more not less stringent.
Agree with the other posters who point out there are bad teachers everywhere and student needs to figure out how to handle them.
OP hasn’t responded to any posts yet I don’t think.
I know it doesn’t need to be physics, but we don’t know what other sciences the kid has or hasn’t done. My kid didn’t have physics either and went to NYU, but she wasn’t doing STEM, so that’s not really relevant either imo. The bottom line is does the student want to skip out on a subject that many people and definitely many STEM applicants have on their transcripts?
Our high school recommends students complete bio, chem and physics to be competitive for college admissions.
The issue is not specifically physics or a science. It is that the previously-reported in-progress courses do not match those listed on the final HS transcript.
My kid never took physics, but did take three lab sciences. The third one was anatomy and physiology (a DE course). Took physics for the first time freshman year of college, along with calculus. Granted, this was starting on 2006, but the kid was an engineering major.
At this point, I would agree with above posters…take physics. The student will be exposed to the material which will be helpful later.
Even a bad high school class gives more preparation than no high school class. My D took AP chem with a brand new teacher (veteran had a medical crisis and couldn’t return at the last minute). Teacher was beyond unprepared. The students routinely pointed out her errors in both lecturers and on exams. The kids formed study groups, reached out to recent alumni for tutoring, and advocated for themselves with the admins (she was fired after the school year. Icing on the cake for the administration was when most of the class bombed the AP test).
My D (a chem E major in college) retook chem 1 and 2 because she felt she didn’t have a strong enough foundation and it turns out that she knew way more than she thought. She was the curve breaker on every exam (got a personalized letter from the prof at the end of the year, was asked to be a TA, etc…). And she probably learned more in self advocacy and utilizing her resources from that AP class than any others. Those skills have served here well. The realities of life is that there will always be bad teachers, bad team mates, and bad bosses. The key is learning to be successful despite them.
Possibly skipping physics because the teacher is “not great.” This is not a good reason to avoid taking physics. “Not great” for the kid down the street does not mean “not great” for you. Blaming the teacher, especially before the even class begins, is not a good idea. Lots of students have teachers that they don’t like for a variety of reasons- going for extra help, getting a tutor, etc often helps. While I do acknowledge that there are all kinds of teachers out there, it is important that students learn how to handle the situation and achieve success regardless.
Is physics required, or is it ok to substitute a different science in its place? What is the science-related major, and would taking physics help? Do the colleges that this student is applying to require physics, or do they require 3 sciences and at least 2 labs, without specifying?
Some students do not take physics, and that might be perfectly ok…depending on the student, major, college, etc. Right now we do not have enough information.
Personally, I would want my rising senior to take physics. I agree it will be helpful down the road….even if the science-related major does not include physics (not sure what science-related actually means). I would also want my kid to learn how to navigate a less than perfect situation, if that’s what actually happens.
I agree with this point. In most cases, I think that taking the class is the best choice including learning to deal with a poor teacher. I do think there are some instances that a teacher can be so damaging or outright hostile that finding an alternative such as an online class might be a better choice. For example, I’ve known science teachers who seem to believe that kids from certain races and backgrounds can’t do quantitative work. Or a teacher who has a reputation for leering at teenaged girls. Or one who is known for picking a couple of favorites and refuses to call on the non-favored kids, excludes them from class discussions or docks their grades for minutiae. As Darcy123 points out, there are some teachers who really do not belong in a classroom although one hopes those teachers won’t retain their jobs, sometimes they cause a lot of damage to their students before an administration takes action. But I assume that in this case, the OP is really just talking about a run or the mill lousy teacher not a damaging one. So unless there is a bigger issue at play, in this case, skipping Physics doesn’t seem wise for a STEM major.
This is so true! Back in the dark ages, my high school didn’t offer AP physics, so it was just “Physics”. The teacher was in his last year before retirement and really wanted to retire the previous year but couldn’t for some reason (he told us this). He kept reminding us he didn’t want to be there. But he made it super easy on us and gave group tests, open book tests, and once actually left the answer key on his desk, told us it was there, and left the room!
I learned very little but of course only someone truly trying to get a bad grade would have gotten anything other than an A
These days even with AP tests to consider, at least there is a plethora of self study material available!!!