Expectations, teachers, school.

[nothereanymore]

I'm in my second to last year of school (junior/fifth year, for those here and across the pond). I'm in advanced placement United States history and English. AP is one step up from regular level classes. There's a program at my school called International Baccalaureate, which is one step above AP. The AP and IB kids are taught by the same two teachers for history and English. My history teacher seems to think the two classes are equal. The curriculums, the expectations, etc. He puts us down and tells us that we're not trying as hard, IB is better than us, we're the underdogs. I'm so sick of it. I wasn't in honors classes last year or the year before. I've never taken an honors class except in science my freshman year. Excuse me for not making a smooth transition and busting out A's left and right.
I understand being expected to put in as much effort and care as much as an IB student. I can do that. But why can't he judge my work and effort on an AP level instead of an IB level? I'm an AP student! If I could work on an IB level, I'd be in IB. If they were equal classes, same curriculum, same expectation, they wouldn't be separate classes. I'm so tired of the comparison. If he's trying to motivate us, he's not. It's frustrating, it hurts, and it's definitely not motivating. We are not the same. My English teacher gets it. She has never compared us to IB. I don't understand why he has to. I'm gonna talk to him and try to politely make my point. If he continues to do this I'm taking it to higher authority because I see a huge problem with this.

I have had three chapter quizzes in the last two weeks or so in history. 80%, 90%, 40%. The first two raised my grade a whole 2.3%. The last dropped it 5.2%. I am now at a D+ again after doing my best to raise it a letter. I don't understand. And I'm seriously pissed. He keeps changing the format on the quizzes, adding more questions, changing it from short answer to multiple choice, and it does affect it. He includes questions I didn't remember being in the reading and I know that if I asked him he'd say that I should've read it. I don't want him to tell me the answer to the quiz question, I want him to show me where it was in the reading so I can read it and find it for myself. Too much?

I will spend my break next week catching up on the past two units that I seriously slacked on and putting in effort. I will also catch up in English and chemistry. I will become the perfect picture my teacher wants even though his expectations are ridiculous. I will give him my best and he's just gonna have to take it or leave it. But I will not let this slide.

Btw for those that knew I had midterms this week I did extremely well on all of them.

[Chris]

Hey there. Well it seems like you have legitimate reasons to be upset. I would definitely bring them up to him (your teacher), and if nothing changes, I would bring it up to the department chairman, or to the academic dean(s). In high school, we use to have problems like this all the time. We would ask teachers to refrain from comparing us to other levels/groups, or from putting us down, but if they didn't listen, we went straight to the academic dean(s) and they handled it accordingly. YOU are paying for this education (doesn't matter if it's public or private school), and you are there to learn. In turn, they need to effectively teach you that particular subject.

Remember, communication is key.


Best wishes,
Chris