Mr. Bolos has mentioned several times how he shadowed a student the first year he came to New Trier. This, in my opinion, is an excellent idea and should be used more often by New Trier so that even tenured teachers would have to shadow students from time to time. Any Trevian will tell anyone that cares to listen how stressful NTHS is, but I was surprised that Mr. Bolos didn't make it through the day. For me, New Trier has become a routine, and I accept the fact that I have lots of homework (though, with AAS this year, not half as much as my friends in double APs), and that sometimes I won't get the sleep I need. But isn't high school supposed to be easy? Isn't what were experiencing now supposed to be college?
I've heard from several people that the gap between New Trier and college is much easier than that from other schools. And of course, we hear about being high-performing all the time. But how many teachers recognize the difficulty levels of New Trier? Is New Trier hard, or just fair? And should all teachers, including tenured ones, have a responsibility to have a better understanding of what classes are really like?
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I do feel like New Trier is fair, even if now people look onto it as too hard. Yes, it is difficult and stressful, but pampering us wouldn't be near as beneficial. Anyway, the level system gives students a choice in how challenging an experience they want.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do feel like teachers should follow students around. Last year, I had an english teacher who, because it was a level 4 class, assumed she could give hours of homework a night, because it was an "honors class", and we had dedicated ourselves to that. Problem is, she never realized that many students were in numerous level 4 classes, and also played sports or did other activities. If she had been able to shadow a student, she would have seen the experience we have and been more sympathetic.