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Too Much Academic Pressure at Naperville North?

Kind of a hard split here between whether the school is pressing too hard or if he parents are.

It's the sports mentality here masquerading as parents pushing their kids in the classroom.

The notion of "kids need to be kids" is fading faster and faster everyday.

The simple reality is not every kid needs to take AP glass or strive to become a doctor lawyer or astronaut.

What's lost here is that kids are far sharper and more societal aware now than ever before.

I appreciate that Naperville wants the reputation of being an academic leader but make sure you're teaching kids instead of just trying to educate them.
 
Think NN or the parents at NN are "over the top" on academics?......You should see some of the schools in Japan and China.,... totally insane.
 
What a joke.... Kids don't fail because little Johnny and little Sally's parents won't let them.

Little Johnny tries out for the travel baseball team and doesn't make it because he's just not good enough. Instead of letting him play park district baseball, what does little Johnny's daddy do? Yep, he starts his own travel team. Well done Daddy... Teaching your son alot there.


Little Johnny shows up at home with his fundraising stuff for his team... Instead of encouraging him to get out and work for his teammates, mommy just either donates a few dollars or allows him to do nothing. Thus showing him it's ok to not have to work and that mommy and daddy are here to bail you out.


Well the real world doesn't bail you out.


Let's just make sure kids today don't have to do anything or are allowed to coddled and not held accountable for life...


Well done parents. Or, we can continue to blame NNHS instead of looking in the mirror and seeing what the real problem is.


Makes me sick that it's always someone else's fault. ZERO personal accountability for actions.


Just my 2¢
 
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"It was the worst semester of my life."

If you are 26 years old and still use semesters as units of measurement for time ... I think I've found your problem.
 
Often for the purpose of public relations, school administrators work on many levels to boost Advanced Placement course enrollment numbers and the count of how many of those actually take the end-of-course AP Test in the subject. We may also learn of how many students scored a 3, 4 or 5. However, we rarely find out anything about those who washed out due to the push into AP classes or any numbers relating to those casualties. If would be helpful to also publish data about drops, failures, audits, etc. that result from such over-placement at the hands of excessively zealous administrators, guidance staff or parents.
 
One of my kids has a full boat of AP classes - several hundred bucks, but cheaper than U of I credit hours. One class - stats - she is not taking the AP test but has a 98 percent in the class. She does not need it for her major.

The teacher keeps pressuring her to take the test ... so his average goes up with her almost guaranteed 5. It's about school prestige too.
 
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One of my kids has a full boat of AP classes - several hundred bucks, but cheaper than U of I credit hours. One class - stats - she is not taking the AP test but has a 98 percent in the class. She does not need it for her major.

The teacher keeps pressuring her to take the test ... so his average goes up with her almost guaranteed 5. It's about school prestige too.

Sometimes it will satisfy a graduation requirement if you get credit for the class.

Example a person not planning on a History or Humanities Degree can use AP World History and AP European History as credits that satisfy the particular University graduation requirements for # of Credits/Hours in History etc.

TOTALLY get the school pressure and prestige. These HS's (and some teachers I would guess) are judged on what percent of students take the AP exams and percentage that did well 3/4/5. So the pressure will always be there. US News has the AP piece as one of the components in their HS rankings for example if memory serves and they haven't changed it.
 
Our you could take 6 ap classes and end up with no college credit.
 
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Naperville North should teach classes that have real world use! Like:

*35 and Living in My Parents Basement
*How to Live on Welfare (and Other Government Programs)
*Starbucks IS a Career
*How to Raise MInimum Wage to $100k
*Student Loan Payments are for Suckers
 
One of my kids has a full boat of AP classes - several hundred bucks, but cheaper than U of I credit hours. One class - stats - she is not taking the AP test but has a 98 percent in the class. She does not need it for her major.

The teacher keeps pressuring her to take the test ... so his average goes up with her almost guaranteed 5. It's about school prestige too.
Some colleges don't let you count AP credits for your major, so anything non-major would count. Plus majors change so one never knows.
 
Sometimes it will satisfy a graduation requirement if you get credit for the class.

Example a person not planning on a History or Humanities Degree can use AP World History and AP European History as credits that satisfy the particular University graduation requirements for # of Credits/Hours in History etc.

TOTALLY get the school pressure and prestige. These HS's (and some teachers I would guess) are judged on what percent of students take the AP exams and percentage that did well 3/4/5. So the pressure will always be there. US News has the AP piece as one of the components in their HS rankings for example if memory serves and they haven't changed it.
Just got a refund on the AP Lit (or ) Langtest she canceled today. The reason is that one of her more in tune friends pointed out that with her ACT and SAT subject scores, she gets the class credit anyway, so no need for the test.

Ok - sounds good. And I got $78 credited to my card.
 
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In the wake of this "outing" of Naperville North, I have come to learn from a principal in another district that the departure of a NN administrator in the recent past was connected to this very culture. "Where there's smoke, there's fire."
 
It was not like this when I went there. I never did any homework and took "chef's class" my senior year. Just did enough to get by, and half of the other kids there were like me. I doubt that NN is much different than other suburban schools, all are pushing the kids more than in the 1970's and 80's. College was a different story... really had to bust my butt. IMHO NN should de-emphasize academics and go all-in with football. Winning football games is all that matters.
 
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