Julie Callaway » Education and Personal Growth http://juliecallaway.com Sharing memories, ideas and my thoughts on different things each day Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:05:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Huge disappointment in the local college http://juliecallaway.com/2009/06/15/huge-disappointment-in-the-local-college/ http://juliecallaway.com/2009/06/15/huge-disappointment-in-the-local-college/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:26:44 +0000 admin http://juliecallaway.com/?p=157 My brother has ADHD. Because of this he sometimes needs a little bit of extra help in college. Help in the way of being given extra time to complete assignments. Unfortunately, the college he is now going to won’t let him have extra time to complete assignments. Because of this he has run into a snag that is preventing him from graduating with his bachelor’s degree. He needs to get a “C” in a particular class. His professor was a hard-nose who would not give him any time extensions on his assignments, and he needed an extension. Because he could not get the extension, he received a “D” in the class, so he can’t graduate unless he takes the entire class over again, which would cost him an extra $1,000.00.

He really needs this degree to get the job that he wants. He has tried everything possible to get the grade changed to an “Incomplete” and get the assignment turned in, but the college won’t allow it. He has gone all the way to the top administrator, and even though they admit that they “could” change the “D” to an “I” and then let him turn in the assignment and get that “C” that they simply don’t want to do it. During the last meeting they went so far as to encourage him to stop pursuing his degree, claiming that he doesn’t need that degree to get the job that he wants. I find this to be an outrageous claim because he tried to get “that job” and was told repeatedly during his job seeking interview that he DOES need that degree. When he signed up for the courses at the college, they also told him that he “needs” this degree. And now that he is only ONE assignment away from getting that hard earned degree, they are refusing to let him turn in the assignment and telling him (after thousands of dollars spent and many hours spent pursuing the degree that he has been repeatedly told he needs and telling him he doesn’t really “need” that degree and he should just go get a job!

What a tremendous disappointment, and what a huge ripoff! And yes, he will end up taking that course over again, but NOT with that same professor. It would be a huge disservice to himself and our parents to stop one class short of his hard earned degree. From this point on, however, if and when anyone asks me about my opinion of that college, they will get an earful!

]]> http://juliecallaway.com/2009/06/15/huge-disappointment-in-the-local-college/feed/ 0 Gender gap http://juliecallaway.com/2009/05/10/gender-gap/ http://juliecallaway.com/2009/05/10/gender-gap/#comments Sun, 10 May 2009 18:37:26 +0000 admin http://juliecallaway.com/?p=146 I was reading an article in the Time.com website about the myth that boys are better than girls in math. It reminded me of an anecdote my aunt told me about when she went to high school back in the early ’70s. She signed up for a class in functions, one of the most advanced math classes her school had to offer. She had already aced Algebra I, II, and Trig. The next course to take was functions. So she signed up for it. Her teacher was a man who announced on the first day of class that he believed that girls should not be in his class, that they were taking up seats that boys should be in. He warned them that he had never passed a girl in his glass, and never WILL pass a girl. He told them all to drop his class immediately or they would flunk. He said he would never answer any of their questions and never grade their tests – they would be given automatic “Fs” on everything.

Well, my aunt went to the school counselor and the school counselor said there was nothing they could do; he was the only functions math teacher they had. She was advised to stay in the class. She had a step-brother taking the same class and they did their homework together. They turned in their homework (with the same answers) and her brother got “As” and she got “Fs.” The teacher DID give her “Fs” on all of her tests, even though she had the same answers as the ones who got As. Going back to the counselor, again she was told there was nothing she could do but drop the class!

Can you imagine? To this day my aunt is bitter about this; that jerk ruined her GPA which ruined her chances to be the class valedictorian and a fully paid scholarship to the college that she wanted to go to. She will never get over how that jerk ruined her chances to pursue the career of her dreams. I don’t blame her, I’d be bitter too! People say not to let these things “ruin” your life, how CAN you NOT let them ruin your life? How CAN you let go of this kind of resentment that someone ruined your chances to have the ONE career you wanted to have? I don’t know the answer to that, do you?

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