Noma Galway
Archmage
Due to the polar vortex (aka What the Starks Were Warning Us About-thanks Lowan), elementary, middle, and high schools in our region have been canceled for a while, and we missed the annual Geography Bee (For those who don't know, it is a national academic competition that, if you qualify, you actually go to state and nationals and compete for a whole lot of scholarship money). It was rescheduled for tomorrow. My little sister has been preparing for this competition for the past two years. She only has four years of eligibility for this competition (Grades 5-8). They have decided, since classroom time is now very precious, to cancel the Geography Bee for the big schoolwide event. Instead, they will do classroom competitions...in Geography class. This gets rid of my sister's hope for this year to even qualify for state, let alone nationals.
Also because we missed so much school, they missed basketball games. They are making them up this week, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (not Wednesday because that's church night). My sister, because she is in Student Council, is required to go to the two home games which they AREN'T canceling due to the need for more class time. The games are after school, so there really isn't a need to cancel them.
In other words, they canceled an ACADEMIC competition because they needed more time for ACADEMICS, but didn't cancel ATHLETIC competitions because they don't cut into class time.
I'll say it. I was in a gifted program. I'm not athletic at all. I understand the value of class time, even though it was boring for me. I was in the Geography Bee all four years I could and never qualified, but I learned from it. As an academic brain in an athletically dominated area, this situation ticks me off because this is probably the only middle school competition that gives scholarships to college, and there is a very limited eligibility for it. They are ruining this year for my sister, after so much preparation on her part.
Why can't we have it after school...or on Saturday???? We are already late in doing it, but five days isn't that bad for this, especially with inclement weather in most of the country. After school this week, the only night is church night, so that's out. But they have no excuse to not postpone it until Saturday.
My mother is calling them right now to figure out what is going on, so I may have good news later, but I doubt it.
Thanks for reading,
Noma
Also because we missed so much school, they missed basketball games. They are making them up this week, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (not Wednesday because that's church night). My sister, because she is in Student Council, is required to go to the two home games which they AREN'T canceling due to the need for more class time. The games are after school, so there really isn't a need to cancel them.
In other words, they canceled an ACADEMIC competition because they needed more time for ACADEMICS, but didn't cancel ATHLETIC competitions because they don't cut into class time.
I'll say it. I was in a gifted program. I'm not athletic at all. I understand the value of class time, even though it was boring for me. I was in the Geography Bee all four years I could and never qualified, but I learned from it. As an academic brain in an athletically dominated area, this situation ticks me off because this is probably the only middle school competition that gives scholarships to college, and there is a very limited eligibility for it. They are ruining this year for my sister, after so much preparation on her part.
Why can't we have it after school...or on Saturday???? We are already late in doing it, but five days isn't that bad for this, especially with inclement weather in most of the country. After school this week, the only night is church night, so that's out. But they have no excuse to not postpone it until Saturday.
My mother is calling them right now to figure out what is going on, so I may have good news later, but I doubt it.
Thanks for reading,
Noma