I'm afraid I'm about to stumble on forbidden territory. The three Ss (Salary, Sex, and Social class) are usually not addressed in any form of writing. In this case, however, it is necessary.
Students today are remarkably intelligent. If my generation survives, we could be the birth of unimaginable inventions, ideas, and even sciences (no, we haven't explored everything). However, there are always a few bad apples in the barrel.
In every class, there are those people who just do not show any effort whatsoever. These people always receive bad grades because they just do not do their homework. We've all been dealing with these people throughout are entire life, am I right? Even those of you who are out of school work with these "bad apples". There are always ways to deal with their insolence, and my favorite approach is just to simply ignore their stupidity. However, I have always told myself that while I succeed in life, they will be left behind in a cloud of dust. The image of these people on the streets has always filled my mind with a strange, sick type of comfort. These people certainly belong on the streets, and I just love poetic justice in a world where it almost never happens.
In my opinion, these people get too many breaks. Teachers have given these slackers what the doers have always deserved. Some of them even get special programs in which the assignments are practically done by the program managers. That is at the Elementary and Junior High School level, however, and this is a High School Literary Magazine.
High School does have its handouts, however. You can't very well send someone without the skills taught in Junior High School into an advanced math class like Algebra I, so you put them in a class that is much easier to get through. This is fine with me, but there are slight (or in this case, rather large) problems with this.
Let's say that you have Person X, Person Y, and Person A. Person Y has never loved math, but excels anyway. He works to his utmost abilities, and has always done well. Junior High was easy for him, but High School is, quite naturally, a little bit more difficult. Person X has always hated math, and can't get over his hatred. He did alright in Junior High, so is put into an Elementary Algebra class. Person A is not like any of these two at all. She has an attention disability, and never does very well at math. She tries to her utmost abilities, but always ends up a little short of the rest of the class. The Junior High math teacher finally recognized that Person A had a disability, so put her into a Math Skills class in an attempt to make up for several years. Person A does well in her Math Skills class, and can finally grasp information that was once out of reach.
Let's compare things here. To start with, let's go over the material in each class. Math Skills is a class that teaches certain students material that they missed, and which is necessary to learn later material. Elementary Algebra is a class for people who did alright in Junior High, but would probably not be able to handle a full math class in High School very well yet. Algebra I is a class for people who did well in Junior High, and are predicted to be able to grasp the information well. These classes are rather far apart.
Let's say that Person X goes into Elementary Algebra, and does alright in that class. He pulls a B. Person Y goes into Algebra I, and tries, as always, his utmost. Despite his greatest efforts, he doesn't get an A. He only manages to get a B. Person A goes into math skills, and does very well in that class. Things are looking well for Person A, and she manages an A. Now that we have all the information, let's summarize it. Person Y was in the difficult class, and got a B. Person X was in the so-so class, and got a B. Person A was in a review class, and got an A.
Grade Point Average is a very important factor in a student's future, and although all three of these classes might give different credit values, there is no heavier class that gives a higher Grade Point Average. This is foolish, if you consider my example. Both Person Y and Person X got a B in their class, but Person Y had a higher difficulty setting in his class. Does it not make sense that he gets a higher average?
It's even worse if you consider Person A. She got an A in her class, and is considered to have done better than Person Y. Although Person Y got more credits for his efforts, should he not get a higher grade?
Unfortunately, Lexington is not set up for Weighted Classes. If Persons A, X, and Y were to go to Lexington, Person A would have done better than Person Y, who is in a more difficult class. If Math was the only subject taught (which will never happen, I can assure you) Person A would have more of a chance grade-wise. This may seem alright to the administration (and it obviously does, as they are not changing it, and probably never will), but in my opinion, this sounds awfully like a system of Socialism.
