Complaining and Ranting, my favorite!

So, I can already tell online Doctrine + Covenants is going to be one of the stupidest decisions I've made in my undergraduate career.

I have to read each section, then take a quiz, then read the teacher's notes on the section, then read the student manual notes on the section. Then do this for each section, and take tests on groups of 5 sections at a time.

Talk about tediously boring. I made myself sit down to start tonight, and I have only done the assignments for one section and I'm ready to fall asleep.

Oy.

But I had to do it because my internship is until 2 pm every day, I work until 5 pm, so religion had to be after 5 pm, and a religion class that meets after 5 pm on campus was hard to come by.

So yeah.

-mollie

p.s.- as an update on my internship, the site of which I will refer to as "THS":

Yesterday and today combined, I must have met with at least... 60-80 students to change schedules. THS started a new semester, so my "mentor counselor" and I were stationed in the hallway outside the counseling office (from 7 am - 2:15 pm) with computers, doing schedule changes. Yesterday I didn't even have a break to pee (You're welcome for the TMI). Today was a little less busy. But seriously. So. Many. Students. I felt so productive.

There were times when I didn't know what I was talking about, so it was nice to have the other counselor there, and another woman who works in the office (who we'll call Mrs. D) who was there herding the sheep (which was pretty entertaining to watch when I had an extra .2 seconds). But, I learned pretty quickly that there are some things I don't know that I can guess at just by how the student talks to me about it. "Uh, Coach P----- said I could be his TA for 4th period, so I need to drop Biology." (First of all, you're dropping a full year Bio class for a TA position?) "Well, did you get Coach P------ to fill out this form?" I ask, holding up the green sheet they need to have signed. The kid responds, "No, Coach said he didn't want to bother signing the paper and to just come tell you he said it was OK." .... Ok. No. Nice try kid.

Then there was a kid who came back with a teacher's note and another counselor put him in the class. The kid came back to me about two hours later confessing he lied and that he needed to find a new class because the teacher said he couldn't be in the one he supposedly had a note to add. I appreciate your honesty, but next time try not lying the first time. Save you, and us, the trouble please.

I also enjoyed the girl who came and said she "absolutely need[ed]" to get out of a class because she didn't "get along with the teacher." When asked what happened, she mentioned something about getting reprimanded for being generally disrespectful and talking back. Umm... we can't just switch you because you don't know how to behave.

A girl sat down to talk to me and asked me my name. I told her "Mollie." She said "Well, what do we call you?" I told her Mollie was fine, but my last name was Dickerson. We fixed her schedule and when she got up to leave she said "Thank you Miss Dickerson." I think my heart stopped for a second. Miss who?! Weird.

The worst one today was a freshman who had already talked to two other counselors before he got to me. Someone had changed his schedule to classes he couldn't be in (because of prerequisites etc.) and they needed to be changed. He was a transfer student, so today was his second day at THS, and he'd already had three different schedules. We sat down and had to find him an English 9 class. Well, let me tell you about English 9 at THS. The sections have a cap at 35 students. It is offered virtually every period of the day except 5th, with a total of 11 sections or something like that. Four of those are "Bridge Program" sections: a program for 9th graders who are underperforming. They take their core classes (English, Math, Science, and Academic Support) with a group of students. The classes are smaller, require no homework, and generally less demanding. (When I heard about it the first time, I heard Bart in my head saying "We're going to catch up by going slower? Cuckoo. Cuckoo." I see the intended advantages, but I guess I'm just a cynical person. More on the Bridge program some other time.) So take four sections out. That leaves 7 sections, capped at 35 students.

We had already overfilled them, so every single one was at 39 or 40 students enrolled. Except the Bridge classes of course, which were hovering somewhere around 13 enrolled. What was I supposed to do for the kid? I sent him to two different teachers to be added, and neither would take him because they didn't have any more desks. After more schedule rearranging (to get a different period free, to try a different English section) Mrs. D took him to a teacher to explain all the sections were full and the teacher graciously signed his Add form. Seriously. It took about an hour, mapping class sections on a piece of paper, rearranging classes, and three different add attempts for the poor kid to get into a class. And it's his SECOND DAY. I felt really bad for him, but there was nothing I could do but try to make him less mad at me for the hassle by making conversation and offering him candy.

And then there was a senior girl who asked to have a free period (Ok, at THS you have to have a parent give permission to have a free 8th period [or at CHS "early release"] but not if you want a late start with no first period class. Weird, right? I thought so. Anyway.) I looked up her graduation progress and she needed so many credits that she was an unlikely candidate for graduation that year, and I had to be the one to tell her. She got shuffled into the office to talk with her "actual" counselor to see if they could work something out, but that was awkward.

And then there was a girl who was in Clothing 3 (after taking Clothing 1 and 2) and had to drop it because she couldn't pay for the materials that semester. That's lame. Can I just say that? Because it is. I won't get on my soapbox in this entry, except to say that if kids want to take Dance or Art or Clothing 3 or Photography or Band or AutoShop or a variety of other classes at THS, I don't think they should have to pay money for it. I tend to think education is unfair enough for the kids who have no money- they're usually the ones struggling anyway, and life is harder in general. They should at least be able to come to school and take classes in things they like.

And I don't even care- the rich kids should too. Otherwise your Art and Music classes end up being elitist, and you only widen your socio-economic gap which is a little too obvious in the first place; a well-rounded education is only for the kids with the money, sucks to be the rest of you. I also don't think a kid should be in an English class with 40 students. But that's UT for you- as this teacher's blog points out, UT's per student spending is the lowest in the country- almost 1/3 of New York's. One third! He also says money does not cure everything, and higher per student spending certainly does not guarantee a good education. True. But I don't think more spending per student can ever really hurt anything.

Oh don't get me started. All I'm saying (for now) is that I think people ought to be willing to take a tax increase to pay for the education of their own kid, and the kid who lives down the block whose mother works three jobs to pay the mortgage. It's not the kid's fault. My mentor counselor commented she'd rather have her tax dollars pay for their education now than their incarceration later. Valid point. Nevermind the fact that teachers get crappy pay too, and they're the ones practically raising your children for 8 hours a day, 180 days of the year, for 13 years- teaching them to become intelligent, respectable members of society- hopefully anyway. And if you've been around teachers, they'll tell you they don't do it for the money. I think it's a shame people who dedicate their lives to "raising the next generation" have to sacrifice to do it- or at least live on less than they could be making doing many other things. But I guess that's education in general; the work of a good teacher is worth way more than they get paid.

But again, UT teachers get paid the worst. And I know people are going to think I sound like a stuck-up "Yankee" here, but... I can't help but think the education I got in Connecticut is better (in some ways) than that of Utahns if only in part because teachers get paid more there. This [might] mean(s) the well-qualified ones are more likely to find jobs there if they can, meaning (I imagine) more competition for teaching positions, which makes for faculty of a generally higher caliber [excepting Mr. Kos who was a wackjob]. And it's more feasible for them to be teachers, instead of pursuing something more lucrative. So according to my very unprofessional reasoning, it seems more likely that you'd have teachers who have PhDs (like some of our HS teachers), because they can pursue teaching as a [more] serious career goal. Either way, teachers should get paid more.

And yes, taxes in CT are high(er). But I think some things are worth it. I'm sorry- there are things I do appreciate about Utah, but their education spending is LAME.

Ok, I'm done now.

I will have to elaborate more on the Bridge Program, my soapbox, and my internship in general at a later date. Sorry for the rant. But I had to get that out of my system.