Posts by mellowskipper

silentmason4 said:What actually happens to kids who skip out on religion class when it’s tucked right in the middle of the school day? Like, is the school required to provide them with some kind of alternative programming, or are they basically just left to their own devices to wander the halls and do whatever they feel like?

At my kid's school, they actually managed to work out a schedule this year where the classes happen during the first two hours in the morning—so they get to sleep in a bit—and then again during the last two hours in the afternoon, which means they get to head home earlier.
I'm not entirely sure if they've implemented a critical thinking elective yet, or if that isn't slated to start until next school year... maybe.

Larry Walker24 said:
Whatever the Federal Government tries to push through, it's just a fast track to losing the next election.

Dabog, if they even go through with proposing it...

Frank Diaz6 said:Hey everyone! So, I’m officially enrolling this year, and I wanted to pick the brains of anyone who’s been through this before. I’m currently torn between choosing a science-focused high school in Des Moines or heading to the University of Chicago in San Diego. I’m originally from San Diego, and my big dream is to go into medicine. My top choice is definitely the school in Des Moines because their curriculum is super heavy on the sciences you actually need for med school, plus they’re known as one of the top schools in the US. The catch? Some people think I’m being a bit extra by planning to move three hours away from home when I'm only 15. Honestly, I’m feeling pretty optimistic about getting in despite the entrance exams, though! On the other hand, the University of Chicago option has amazing stats for national exams, but I really don't want to spend four straight years drowning in nothing but computer science and math. Also, looking at the big picture, I feel like moving to NYC and living in a dorm might actually be better for my mental health. If anyone has any advice or has been in a similar spot, please help a girl out! 🙏

From what I can gather, Des Moines is your top priority. If you have a perfect GPA, maybe look into prep courses to ensure your spot. If moving away from your current environment is crucial for your mental health, you could always list all six schools located in NYC. You can even apply to Harvard from a general high school track, provided you take the necessary prep classes.

It’s the same deal with religious studies—the agreements with the Holy See mean it can't just be bumped to an after-school slot like computer science or a foreign language might be.
It is a protected, privileged elective subject, and the relationship with the Government is essentially unbreakable.
If we assume, purely hypothetically, that religious studies could be moved to an opposite shift, it would free up an extra two hours a week. That time could go toward a brand-new subject, or maybe more math, or PE, or whatever else is needed...
Personally, I haven't heard of any school where religious studies actually runs during the opposite shift.

That’s a clever little detail. You even included a woke poster.

God help me if they ever try to implement all-day classes
Luckily, that’s just not happening—at least not at our school.

I feel a bit bummed out that those block schedules are gone—though, I suppose, art and technical electives might still stick to a block format. And obviously, computer science is going to be an afternoon class now.
Maybe they should just leave religious studies in a block too.

Susan James said:Her child is a year older than mine, which is why I was asking.
Yeah, I know tech and art are scheduled for one hour a week. As for the block scheduling, that really depends on the school district; right now, most schools seem to be doing it because of those post-pandemic guidelines, but it's not necessarily the standard everywhere.

Also, I've noticed that a lot of the tech teachers actually teach robotics (they take the kids to competitions), computer science, physics, or even math... their schedules get filled up in different ways, so they rarely get assigned as homeroom teachers anymore.

Personally, I don't mind how many hours a week a homeroom teacher spends with a student—and honestly, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the idea of "getting to know" a kid that way—but if they never see them at all, that’s definitely an issue.
Though, that concern feels a bit smaller when we're talking about electives like computer science in middle school rather than something like religious studies, which falls into its own special elective category. 😬

I can't say for certain, but from what I remember, I wouldn't say we had tech every single week. Maybe I just got used to those block periods back in the day and that's just how the logic worked out.
But I'd say maybe once every two weeks? I guess.

hiddendriver34 said:I honestly don’t get how a homeroom teacher can just sit there and teach absolutely nothing to their students. It makes it impossible for them to actually bond with the kid. 🤷 On top of that, if the parents are totally at odds with everything that teacher stands for, how is that even supposed to work? What kind of relationship is that?

I’ve seen this happen before with a Religious Studies teacher, but that was strictly within a private religious academy setting. This situation feels incredibly bizarre.

And what happens when the homeroom teacher is just some elective language instructor that the kid didn't even pick? It still boils down to seeing them once a week for advisory.

Susan James said:It strikes me as odd that they moved kids around different classes based on language requirements, and I still can't wrap my head around why.😕

You actually reminded me of that point about how a homeroom teacher can't bond with a student if they aren't teaching them... A friend of mine who works in a school once told me how parents sometimes complain when the art or music teachers are assigned as homeroom teachers. They feel like since they only see the kids for one hour a week, there isn't enough time to build a connection. They want someone who will "see" their child more frequently during the week. She actually saw this happen once where parents successfully pushed to change a homeroom teacher because the professor was splitting his time between two different schools, so he wasn't physically present every day. Personally, I thought that sounded like a silly reason, but it mattered to those parents, and the principal ended up respecting their concerns at the time.
The people teaching elective subjects aren't ideal, mostly because their schedules are so hectic, even if they do lead some extracurricular activities.

Back when I was in school, I had a split schedule with English, and I remember it being such a huge downside that the teacher would spend our actual lesson time dealing with administrative issues instead of teaching, which meant we lost out on learning. From that perspective, "elective" subjects seem like better candidates for homeroom than math, history, or foreign languages—but religious studies definitely isn't one of them (especially if you have a kid who won't ever see the teacher except during Religious Studies class).

In my middle school, my homeroom teacher taught shop class. So, it was basically a block period every two weeks and then advisory once a week. Everything worked out fine.

It’s all pretty much what you’d expect, I suppose.—nothing particularly shocking here.
They’re introducing some sort of new regulation—or maybe just another bureaucratic hoop to jump through.

A colleague’s daughter went through something similar once. Her family are atheists—not religious at all—and there wasn't any drama about it; the homeroom teacher didn't single her out or anything like that.
I suppose the same kind of thing could happen with an elective language class if a kid doesn't sign up for it—the teacher only sees them once a week during extracurriculars anyway.
At the end of the day, a teacher for any subject really ought to be a professional first and foremost—someone who keeps their personal biases to themselves as much as possible...

feralridge3 said:They can scrutinize every single detail they want, but the outcome is going to be a "yes." I’m not even guessing here. 😁

God willing.

feralridge3 said:They can't exactly claim I'm fit for duty when I'm dealing with two major illnesses.
Aren't they dragging their feet a bit too much? I have rights to several benefits, yet everyone is just stalling, waiting on some commission decision.

The issue isn't really about proving how incapable you are—it’s more about how much capacity you actually have left.
So, if they decide there's even a shred of ability left in you, you'll probably get rejected.
They also tend to deny people who are just a few years away from meeting the initial requirements for Social Security.

I've come to the conclusion that it's essentially some kind of ultra-rare condition—like, the only one of its kind in the entire US—so I suppose that’s why they won't do it; they just don't want anyone to actually identify it.

Kyle Reed30 said:So what am I supposed to do then??

How am I even meant to know if they rejected me without saying anything? And how do you even restart the process if the private providers turn you down?
??????

They’ll submit the findings and their official opinion to the American Medical Association (which will explicitly state whether they denied you or not), and then some social worker or legal rep from the American Medical Association who’s putting the decision together will give you a call to come in.
If they do deny you, there's an appeals process. All the specific instructions on how to handle that will be laid out right there in the official decision notice.

Kyle Reed30 said:.

Jesus :'(

What do you mean nothing will be resolved? What exactly is the Center for Artificial Intelligence going to do—not call me at all, or just tell me to go see a public doctor? Or are they just going to ignore my files entirely?

They might call you, or they might not. They didn't call my mom, for instance. And they don't exactly refer people to public doctors.
At the initial review board, whoever happens to be sitting there that day—any specialist, really—is the one who looks over your paperwork. In my mother's case, she's an oncology patient, and her files were reviewed by an epidemiologist. Naturally, the request was denied.

Michelle Nelson4 said:But honestly, this latest curriculum overhaul has definitely trimmed down some of those endless, mind-numbing lists of facts that textbooks used to cram into your head just for you to forget them by next Tuesday.

I remember back in the day—it feels like an absolute eternity ago—when my daughter would hunt for geography quizzes online to test herself. She’d get all worked up because she couldn't find a specific answer in her textbook, only for us to realize that information was actually part of the old curriculum. Looking at the publication dates, we realized she was actually quite lucky that some of that outdated clutter had been cleared out already.🙏

Yeah, everyone seems to say that—people who have kids just a year or two older than mine, anyway. I guess if my kid's history textbook were twice as thick as it is now, I might actually have something to complain about—but maybe it’s better if I just don't start grumbling.

Larry Walker24 said:It’s definitely not easier. There's a ton of fluff, and organic chem is basically stripped down to nothing.

Salts are easily the hardest part of 8th grade.

And let’s not even get started on the salt. There are like, a hundred different ways to extract it—not to mention all the various chemical names and its melting point... that could honestly turn into a real headache. We’ll pull through—I suppose.

Michelle Nelson4 said:Hydraulics in 7th grade? Honestly, I went through my entire high school physics textbook and didn't see a single mention of that.

In my experience, they had a few different physics projects. None of them were just making some PowerPoint presentation; instead, they’d pick a specific topic from the curriculum and design an actual experiment to test it out and present their findings. That first one was a bit of a hurdle—she actually got it sent back for revisions—but once she cleared that hump, they were pretty much working independently.

What I mean is, that initial project was quite the jump... definitely a "level up" from the year before and fairly massive in scope. But it turned out they could handle it; after that first shock to the system, the learning curve really started to steepen. 😁

It isn't in the textbook. They probably had to hunt for it in the dark corners of the internet. If I recall correctly, it might have been tied to the chapter on Force. And honestly, she's a bit too fond of abstract concepts...
Well, I don't remember us covering that in high school physics.
They did experiments, which was fine. She finds physics okay—even interesting, at times. It's more chemistry that she struggled with. Though, I assume chemistry in 8th grade will be easier since they've already tackled the hardest parts. At least, that's what I'm hoping.

Michelle Nelson4 said:That’s hardly a life lesson.
Instead, what I see over the last few pages here is everyone insisting there isn't enough of it—claiming that if you don't have these facts memorized, you won't be able to think critically in the real world.

Sure, a fact is a fact. The year a company was founded is a fact. But honestly, if you don't happen to know that off the top of your head, it's not like you're going to be unable to just look it up on Google 😂

They teach it, and they’re expected to know it. And that was just one example from geography.
There is just so much fluff, and then everyone acts surprised when kids immediately purge all that info from their brains the second the test is over. It's just more and more useless trivia.
That's one side of it.
On the other hand, they get assigned a project to research and present, say, Hydraulics. (that was my topic.) And then they're faced with a choice: a) memorize a few slides and recite them like a parrot without actually understanding a word, or b) have a parent step in to explain what Hydraulics actually is—maybe even doing a little demonstration so they truly grasp the concept.
And apparently, all of that is considered "school for life"...

Honestly, life skills classes are a joke. Though, if you think about it—and I guess I am—you could probably just send those eighth graders straight to work at ExxonMobil. They’d probably be efficient enough to run the place in no time.
Rank the national parks by acreage or maybe the nature preserves by the year they were established.
I mean, how is anyone supposed to survive without that specific information? Real "life skills" right there...