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Finally, what you're talking about seems to be unique to your school district, or at least your area. I checked the current curriculum for both my High School (which is private) and where by brothers went (A highly rated suburban "Pressure Cooker" HS.) Both offered AP level fine arts courses, and several honors level music and arts courses. The public school offered two AP level Fine Arts courses, Music Theory and Studio Art. The private HS only offered one (AP Studio Art) but had a few more honors options. AP studio art, AP Music theory, etc...
My son was able to take music classes for honors credit. The OP should approach her kids school about developing a fine arts curriculum that allows for honors credit in musical ensembles.
My son had to do additional assignments to get honors credit. He had to:
Audition for the teacher to make sure his playing was at an honors level
Audition for All State and All County
Participate in an ensemble other than the school band
Attend a classical concert outside of his school and write a review of that concert
There might have been a few more requirements but students were able to get honors credit for music ensembles. Orchestra and Chorus also allowed for honors credit but I am not sure what the requirements were.
Yes, it comes down to personal choices. Our school has AP Music Theory, Art Theory and AP Studio Art for Val/sal aspirants. My son does choir and don't want to drop it for another boring AP class so even if his unweighted GPA is highest, his rank would be low because that depends upon weighted GPA. He is taking all other AP courses and scores 99-100. It bothers him a lot.
His cousins were valedictions in their schools and he always wanted to be one too. I don't see much value in Val/Sal but a heart wants, what a heart wants. To be honest, he isn't that good at singing but choir is fun and he likes being part of the choir and doesn't mind putting hours and hours into rehearsals.
This is a lesson in sometimes you can't always get exactly what you want, and you have to make tough choices. Your son must choose, on his own, what is more important to him: his class rank and shot at the top schools, or sing in the school choir.
Is there another after hours choir he can join? Perhaps a church choir? Or, perhaps he will choose to pause choir for a year and aim for a college with a well-known acapella group so he can continue then? I had to drop Band my senior year in high school, but I joined band in college, so it was really just a break.
Then your school DOES value fine arts even by YOUR definition, contrary to the title of this thread.
Most kids want to sing, play an instrument, act, write a story. They don't mind taking Music or Art theory on top of it but there are only so many hours in a day and so many electives you can take because you do have to take sciences, maths, history and languages etc.
Most kids want to sing, play an instrument, act, write a story. They don't mind taking Music or Art theory on top of it but there are only so many hours in a day and so many electives you can take because you do have to take sciences, maths, history and languages etc.
Approach the administration about having an honors level for ensembles. Kids are still in their normal ensembles and have extra assignments for honors credit. It is done in many schools.
I see disappointment in his future. REAL disappointment.....
Why? Is it fair to suffer academically because you are enthusiastic about fine arts and spending time and effort. Someone else can just be office aid or take study hall which have no impact on GPA. It's not only about him, he already made his choice but he wants to change it for future students. It's about ending GPA politics.
Why? Is it fair to suffer academically because you are enthusiastic about fine arts and spending time and effort. Someone else can just be office aid or take study hall which have no impact on GPA. It's not only about him, he already made his choice but he wants to change it for future students. It's about ending GPA politics.
It's not fair. Life isn't fair.
It would be a good project for him, he could maybe run for office or start a petition or something like that. That's a good idea.
Of course, it's a more global problem. I was just told that the high school my children will be attending started a new policy recently that limits the number of AP courses any student is allowed to take over the whole 4 years to 8 AP courses. They did this in an attempt to make things more fair, keep kids from burning out (they recently had a suicide), and let the kids take other classes, like choir, if they want. Sounds good, right?
Unfortunately, since they have implemented this, they have taken a huge hit on Ivy League admissions in their senior class. There were zero last year, which is unheard of for this particular school. This is because the high school across town does not limit AP classes, and all of a sudden all of their graduating seniors had much higher GPAs than ours did. And the colleges are accepting the higher GPAs, even though our school is "better rated". If the AP limit policy continues, kids with sights on Harvard and the like are going to start moving across town.
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