Front Office Football Central - View Single Post

cuervo72 · 02-25-2016, 09:08 AM

It's been a couple of fun (?), late nights this week, as my son is going through his course selections for Junior year -- which really amount to planning for both Junior and Senior year.

His high school schedule is not like what I experienced. Rather than having seven or eight periods with classes you take for the entire year, he has four class blocks (well, with lunch and "connect" [study hall/enrichment] it's a little different, but basically four blocks) and what are essentially two college-style semesters. So he has one slate of courses from Aug-Jan, then another from Jan-Jun. So really, eight half-year blocks.

Four of these are taken up by AP Calc I/AP Calc II, and AP Chem I/AP Chem II -- which are really just full-year AP Calc BC and AP Chem. That was the easy part. And he will be signing up for Marching Band, which is only offered 1st semester, and AP US History (I do not know if this is offered 1st, 2nd, or either).

The hours of back and forth pretty much all revolved around the non-core classes (at least non-core from a STEM standpoint). He has to take an English class each year, but for whatever reason there is no Honors 12 class. It's either take AP Lang in 11 then AP Lit in 12, or take Honors 11 then AP Lang in 12. I'd have liked for him to get AP Lang taken care of early to help more with the SAT and college essays, but AP Lit...well, it's not his thing. Plus we didn't want darn near everything other than band to be AP, so Honors 11 it is. Hopefully AP Lang is first sem Sr year.

So, that still leaves a slot. I'm still not sure what he's going to do here, and he may not decide until he actually turns in the paper later today (after he consults with his Academic Team coach and his AP World prof -- who happen to teach a couple of the courses). In play are AP Psych, AP Euro, AP Environment, and Ancient and Medieval History. Psych (taught by his coach) is probably going to be taken at some point, but he's not sure when. He has some friends who are interested in Ancient/Medieval, if that is even offered (it wasn't this year). Of course, there's also a girl (friend of friend) who grates the shit out of him who might take it. And it's not AP -- not even weighted as honors, I don't think.

Enviro could wait, if he takes it at all. Euro is the same teacher as World, which would be good. If he had that at the same time as AP US thought? Yeah, that might be a bit much. Probably wouldn't be an issue if one of the two histories* was paired with band, but we have no guarantee that would be the case.

* He is looking at history classes because a) he likes them, and b) he can join Rho Kappa if he has enough of them. Psych counts for these purposes too.

----------------

Switching gears somewhat to my daughter's schedule (rising Freshman). My son took care of his language requirement in middle school, and took Spanish III to boot in HS (signed up for Spanish IV but scheduling bumped it; this is probably just as well). Daughter is signing up for Latin. Might be useful for roots and to aid in understanding various terminologies. But my philosophical question is - why are languages deemed necessities by colleges/college prep programs?

I mean, I took three (?) years of Spanish. I can't say I really recall much more than a trace of it. I've never used it. I doubt my son will either, and if he does he'll likely have to relearn it. My daughter sure as hell won't be conversing with anybody in Latin.

So, what's the point? If the point is to be well-rounded, couldn't you get that from other subjects?

02-25-2016, 09:08 AM	#84
cuervo72 Head Coach Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Maryland	It's been a couple of fun (?), late nights this week, as my son is going through his course selections for Junior year -- which really amount to planning for both Junior and Senior year. His high school schedule is not like what I experienced. Rather than having seven or eight periods with classes you take for the entire year, he has four class blocks (well, with lunch and "connect" [study hall/enrichment] it's a little different, but basically four blocks) and what are essentially two college-style semesters. So he has one slate of courses from Aug-Jan, then another from Jan-Jun. So really, eight half-year blocks. Four of these are taken up by AP Calc I/AP Calc II, and AP Chem I/AP Chem II -- which are really just full-year AP Calc BC and AP Chem. That was the easy part. And he will be signing up for Marching Band, which is only offered 1st semester, and AP US History (I do not know if this is offered 1st, 2nd, or either). The hours of back and forth pretty much all revolved around the non-core classes (at least non-core from a STEM standpoint). He has to take an English class each year, but for whatever reason there is no Honors 12 class. It's either take AP Lang in 11 then AP Lit in 12, or take Honors 11 then AP Lang in 12. I'd have liked for him to get AP Lang taken care of early to help more with the SAT and college essays, but AP Lit...well, it's not his thing. Plus we didn't want darn near everything other than band to be AP, so Honors 11 it is. Hopefully AP Lang is first sem Sr year. So, that still leaves a slot. I'm still not sure what he's going to do here, and he may not decide until he actually turns in the paper later today (after he consults with his Academic Team coach and his AP World prof -- who happen to teach a couple of the courses). In play are AP Psych, AP Euro, AP Environment, and Ancient and Medieval History. Psych (taught by his coach) is probably going to be taken at some point, but he's not sure when. He has some friends who are interested in Ancient/Medieval, if that is even offered (it wasn't this year). Of course, there's also a girl (friend of friend) who grates the shit out of him who might take it. And it's not AP -- not even weighted as honors, I don't think. Enviro could wait, if he takes it at all. Euro is the same teacher as World, which would be good. If he had that at the same time as AP US thought? Yeah, that might be a bit much. Probably wouldn't be an issue if one of the two histories* was paired with band, but we have no guarantee that would be the case. * He is looking at history classes because a) he likes them, and b) he can join Rho Kappa if he has enough of them. Psych counts for these purposes too. ---------------- Switching gears somewhat to my daughter's schedule (rising Freshman). My son took care of his language requirement in middle school, and took Spanish III to boot in HS (signed up for Spanish IV but scheduling bumped it; this is probably just as well). Daughter is signing up for Latin. Might be useful for roots and to aid in understanding various terminologies. But my philosophical question is - why are languages deemed necessities by colleges/college prep programs? I mean, I took three (?) years of Spanish. I can't say I really recall much more than a trace of it. I've never used it. I doubt my son will either, and if he does he'll likely have to relearn it. My daughter sure as hell won't be conversing with anybody in Latin. So, what's the point? If the point is to be well-rounded, couldn't you get that from other subjects? __________________ null Last edited by cuervo72 : 02-25-2016 at 09:10 AM.