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Picking classes

If you don’t want to read boring and complicated rant, skip down to the part about the beach. I won’t be offended.

It’s that time of year again to choose classes, and so I have to figure out what classes I’m going to take (or have to take) for my senior year of high school. In a way, it will be the most important year because I have to make sure I have all the credits required for graduation. What’s more, I’ll be expected to take more than one AP class by various important grown-ups who expect lots of things of me. My precalculus teacher has recommended me for AP Calculus AB. Even the best students struggle in that class. I know some of them. Also, some computer has automatically recommended me for AP English Literature, but that’s a recommendation I can more easily override. I’m not seriously interested in taking any other AP classes anyway, and here’s why. First, I’ll give you some background on the school: all-magnet school, no school on Fridays, longer school day, four 110-minute blocks per day, (most) classes change mid-year. (Hey, I’m getting pretty good at that.) Take time to digest that and then consider the following.

The men and women who run this school apparently decided that we bright students need to maintain our reputation as bright students and take more AP classes. So they’re taking AP classes and pairing them off with other classes that aren’t necessarily related! In most cases, the AP classes that presently run all year will still last the whole year but only take place every other day. The irrelevant class will be held on the other days. Not only does this fly in the face of freedom of choice, but it also screws up our already abnormal schedule. So freshmen expecting to take an honors English class will have to put up with AP Human Geography. Sophomores who want to take English II Honors must take AP European History. Some AP classes, however, are related to their pairs and will still function as year-long classes. Technically, when you take AP Calculus AB, the first semester Calculus Honors, and the second semester is AP Calculus AB. I doubt that that’s going to change. I don’t want to take AP English because I don’t want to switch off between it and AP American Government. How is the teacher supposed to teach AP English, and how am I supposed to pass the exam, if we spend half as much time in class as we should?

I was actually supposed to have my classes picked out by today, but I didn’t know that until today. I did know that the deadline was drawing near, which is why I spent some time yesterday thinking about the classes I would have to take. But today in first hour when some guidance-counselor-type people came in and told us that we had to have our classes picked, I sort of panicked. After a while of helping people select their classes online, they acknowledged that I could just go to the school board web site and do it at home. Then I’d have to meet up with some guidance-counselor-type person on Monday so they could go over my selections quickly.

“Quickly” is the operative word here. A few weeks ago, when we were handed our guides to next year’s courses, we were told not to schedule appointments with the guidance counselors to discuss our course selections — or the “guidance counselors,” I should say. I’m dead serious, but no one believes me. It’s like the “guidance counselors” don’t want to guide or counsel you, even though it’s their job. Anyway, trying to talk to them is a joke. Scheduling a visit is a chore, and sitting down and discussing things is funny. They don’t try to understand you. They just want to get it over with so they can talk to the next kid and then have a smoke break or something. Allegedly.

Now those who wanted to skip that confusing rant can be reunited with the rest of us. (You didn’t miss much, guys, really.) Anyway, I had planned to go to the beach yesterday with Nacole and some other people as some sort of spring break finale. (Bowling was the introduction, you might say.) Unfortunately, nobody could go for various reasons, so it was cancelled or at least postponed. It would be nice to do some friendly thing with Nacole sometime. We have a unique relationship: I asked her out, and she said yes not thinking it was a date; confusion ensued, but it was resolved. Instead of asking her out again, I let it go for some reason. But now she has a boyfriend that she loves half to death, which is why it makes it really awkward for me to be talking about us as if there ever was an “us.” I dwell on the whole thing way, way too much. To her I’m probably just another classmate.

State Department to Americans: Don’t act like an idiot when you’re a tourist abroad. They’re giving basic rules about politeness that Americans seem to have forgotten. One such tip: “Your religion is your religion and not necessarily theirs. (Religion is usually considered deeply personal, not a subject for public discussions.)” If only the government followed its own advice. Anyway, it’s sad to see that as a whole, we Americans are as dumb, loud, and rude as we are perceived.

Make your own room-sized camera obscura.

One year ago: “Since Thursday, I’ve been thinking slightly a teeny bit more about careers, career options, colleges, curriculum, and so forth. Well, yesterday I filled out my course thingy for next year.”