It was time to get my schedule.
As I looked down, I knew it would be all wrong, and it was, with Algebra at the top. The counselor explained that I had an advanced score--230. And because of advanced math, I got Leaders in Training, my other elective being German. Not my first choices; where was the art and the crafts? A fervent hope that I would be able to change my entire schedule assured me it would be all right.
I immediately came up with a dozen good reasons to opt out, reasons I believed in. We got home and I studied my classes carefully (I got the nice science teacher and the same nice gym teacher I got in 6th)
After telling my reasons and my wish to change classes, a certain karen8899 got angry. "Why won't you? That's GOOD! That means you're smart--so you don't have to stay with the dumb ghetto people in 7th grade math! 7th grade math is easy anyway; it's just review."
No, because I had guessed on the NWEA test, because I hadn't understood half the questions and clicked on the ones that had good numbers in my weird way ("So? I guessed too! That's how I got into Algebra and Geometry!"). Because I didn't want to deal with 8th grade math, because I needed the 7th grade practice. The only reason I got nine out of tens or eight out of tens was because my parents "needed" to check up on the assignment and correct everything. Without the corrections, I would regularly score sevens or so, which meant after a while I would need to pay a trip to "math boot camp".
So came the time to go down to the main office and get a schedule change. I was triumphant. I could and I would, I thought. Nervous as we got into line, I was still confident it would go smoothly. People could opt out, they just had to have the choice. The school district surely couldn't force you to take an advanced class. Probably the most they could do was give a few reasons to stay, maybe a bit forcefully.
First the wrong question was asked. "Why this class?" instead of "Could we change Algebra to regular 7th grade math?" A bit of work was done before finally boiling down to the now half-baked real question. No, I couldn't, we would have to wait two weeks or so until there was a chance to change classes you didn't want. Two weeks of German (my mom thought that was excellent but my dad was partial to the idea), two weeks of Leader in Training (hello other Algebra kids!), two weeks of 8th grade-y math.
After a bit I could bring myself to think of other potential "advanceds". I could only think of 2 or 3, but they wouldn't be that bad. I learned that the class would be composed of mostly the 7th graders. So it all really goes to one statement: I would wait to see how things turned out.
