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FRESHMAN JOURNAL
Behind the
Lines at Berkeley High
March 2000: Midterms
and a Walkout
© Copyright 2000 by Parents' Press
Our Berkeley (California) High School freshman has chosen to be anonymous so she can write more freely.
At my friend's birthday party, I ran across the mom of a friend from last year. She asked me how my midterms and finals for the semester had gone. "Honestly," I told her, "they were really tough. My English teacher gave us one in reading comprehension. He might as well have asked us to translate something of Shakespeare's!" (Which, by the way, I'm horrible at.)
The whole class sat still reading the five or six-page story for a very long time - not getting it. It was very confusing, and some of the questions that were asked did not even relate to the the story itself. Rather they related to the preface, and it didn't occur to most people that some answers would be in that context!
Later my English teacher acknowledged that the test was pretty hard, but he still didn't reduce the amount of credit he had assigned to it - so that really dropped grades in the class considerably. I'm pretty sure I got one of the higher grades with in my class, and I got 82%!
My math final was pretty easy, for me anyway. Yesterday my teacher showed the class a chart of how many people got As, Bs, etc. Boy, was I surprised! About three or four people got As, one person got a B, four people got a C, and (because they have eliminated Ds for freshmen) the rest of the class received Fs!!!
But that wasn't the worst part. My teacher said that out of the 36 other algebra classes, we would rank in the top three! As you can imagine, my shock was considerable.
Anyhow, my friend's mom said that as you get more into high school, the finals get easier - because you're more familiar with them. I have two reactions: I really hope so, and I want teachers to grade on a curve! You should have heard about the science midterms! As I understand, for one teacher at Berkeley High, the average grade was a C-/D!!
Recently, the Jacket, my school's newspaper, published a four-page special dedicated to the issues/problems surrounding BHS with a special focus on our principal, Theresa Saunders. An editorial writer, who chose to remain anonymous, evidently hit a sore spot with someone, because Ms. Saunders mentioned the possibility of a lawsuit - though she didn't say from whom. The charges are suspected to be libel, although no one knows anything just yet.
One day I visited the Jacket, just to see what went on. (If you hadn't heard of us before, we're considered to be a very "controversial" newspaper. Hey! It's Berkeley.) Stories were being assigned by way of screaming across the room! My friend on the Jacket staff said that it really struck her how much her journalism teacher had actually helped her to be prepared for that class. My bud explained that she later "...went back and told her how her class had been a real help. It felt really good to tell her that I appreciated her, and I'm sure that teachers often feel pretty under appreciated."I thought that was pretty neat.
Maybe you saw it on the news, but I was one of the (estimated) 400 students who participated in a Berkeley High walkout on Friday, Feb. 11. Although many people were there for other reasons than wanting solutions to the everyday problems at Berkeley High, it felt good to be united. As we walked down Bancroft Avenue a chant rose up, "Youth united will never be divided!" I waved a sign above my head proclaiming, "No on Proposition 21!" (That's a measure that would, among other things, make it much easier to try a juvenile in adult criminal court.) Later I held a sign asking, "Would you deny anyone a future, or a chance?"
Though I didn't attend everything connected with the walkout, I did witness the discussion with our principal. It seemed like she wouldn't take responsibility for anything, and though she recognized things weren't working, she still wouldn't back down.
One debate centered on the new tardy policy. "Why," asked one student, "are you closing the gate at 12:00? If I'm one minute late coming back from lunch, I have to go all the way around to the other gate, and get a tardy slip - which causes me to wait in line behind all the other tardy people. And it's not even worth it. By the time I get to class there's only 15-20 minutes left!"
I just don't see the point. The new policy is three tardies and they send you to the BOC, which serves as a detention facility. They send you there for the whole day!
How is preventing you from attending class solving anything? Some of the buildings don't even have bells, so your teachers don't always let you out on time! And, with our campus being so large, it's nearly impossible to get to some of your classes on time. If I had math on one end of the campus and had PE the next period, there is no way I could get there in five minutes.
Halfway through the year, and everything is still a mess.
Another issue that came up in the discussion with Ms. Saunders was the college counselors. We have over 3,000 students, and four counselors. And they didn't divide the students equally - there is only one freshman counselor (whose line is always the longest!), and she has over 900 students to take care of!
A major cause for concern was (and still is) the constant absence of counselors along with major mistakes such as college information not being sent on time. Saunders' answers didn't seem to provide any resolution, and the frustration of students didn't seem to be solved. I do recognize, however, that not all of the problems at BHS were caused by our principal - but rather the school board, etc.
Something I miss doing very much is writing. I'm trying to set aside some time (even if it means denying myself those precious hours of weekend beauty sleep) to write poetry.
When I write poetry it helps me reflect on what's happening in my life, form perspectives, and release some of the stress I tend to build up. Sometimes it's just neat to see what I discover about myself, and how I see the world.
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