Here are my thoughts on some of the Free Press stories of the last few days.
Honors class versus assured good grade
A group of students at MMU High School are circulating a petition to convince the administration to weight the GPA’s, that is, to give honors and AP classes more weight in calculating a GPA.
Their reasoning is that honors and AP classes are harder and a student is effectively penalized for taking on the challenging classes, in which their grades are typically lower than they would be in a college prep class.
This leads some students to opt for the easier course load, in order to assure a high GPA, and some students who take the more difficult classes end up off the honor roll.
The principal’s response was priceless.
“Who am I to determine who works harder and what’s more challenging?”
Umm, the principal!
I wonder how that response would go over in the real world. I can imagine the reaction if the director of a hospital gave that explanation as to why he wanted to pay surgeons and janitors the same salary.
That honors and AP classes are more challenging is not a matter of opinion; it’s a fact. AP is college level, for Pete’s sake.
A new initiative to stop global warming
Vermont’s favorite global warming activist, Bill McKibben, is back in the news with a new initiative, 350, as in, the safe and acceptable level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in parts per million.
Does anyone else see the irony in this opening paragraph?
It was raining in Cleveland one day last week, giving Bill McKibben a little down time at the airport.
I’m just saying.
How math protects people from information theft
Okay, I have nothing to say about this other than that my inner math geek thought this was a pretty cool article.
I so heart math.
