Thursday, December 8, 2016

Bad News, Good News and Ping Pong

I had Stockton's CCR today.  Juniors meet one on one with their counselor.  I guess two on one since I'm there too.  Stockton was late. They had sent the message to his psychology teacher to send him down, but his teacher just ignored it.  Ten minutes later they sent another message with a note 'parent is here'.  Finally his teacher let him go.  I like Stockton's counselor, but I found out two annoying things today. First, we have been working towards the Regents scholarship. Maysen received this scholarship.  It is open to anyone as long as they fulfill the requirements and go to a college in Utah.  If you get the highest level, which Maysen did it amounts to around $6,000.  It is also a staking scholarship.  You can have this one even if you have received other scholarships.  This is the reason Maysen's college semester this term cost us $50 including housing.  In order to get this scholarship you need to score high enough on the ACT (I can't remember what that is, but Stockton already nailed that).  You need to take two years of foreign language.  French done.  Three years of social studies.  Finishing the third year now.  Biology, chemistry and physics. Done, done, and having an awful time with physics, but doing it now. Four years of English.  Planning on that.  Four years of math.  Math shouldn't be a problem, right?  It is.  The problem is, every math class has to be harder than the one before it.  Stockton took calculus as a sophomore. This year is AP statistics.  His counselor asked me to call Regents and find out what to do in his situation.  The lady on the phone was completely condescending to me.  She told me his only choice was to take calculus 3 at a college.  I expected several choices.  Even if they were hard.  I said, "Wait, he will have a year between his last calculus class.  How is he supposed to be able to jump right into calculus 3." She didn't care.  I told her that my daughter received this scholarship without taking any calculus.  She said, "Well, he shouldn't have started so high."  WHAT?  I said, "His entire life he has been held back with his math.  Forced to stay with everyone else.  Not allowed to challenge himself and not allowed to see how high he can go.  This was the first time he was allowed to take math on his level."  She said, "Well, the Regents scholarship isn't for everyone."  You are kidding!  The Regents scholarship isn't for him because he excels?  What a joke.  So annoyed!

If that wasn't bad enough, while we were talking with Stockton's counselor I asked about the Chinese program coming next year.  Jorja will be in it.  Ms. Court shook her head and said the Chinese program wasn't coming to Alta.  I was stunned.  I asked what happened.  She said, "Politics.  Other parents threw a fit to get the program at their school.  It got taken away from Alta two days go."  I started to cry.  Yep. Then and there.  My heart was breaking for Jorja.  I know how excited she is to go to Alta with Stockton.  To make her start at a new school....again!  This is ridiculous!  I called the district when I got home.  I talked to the person over the duel immersion program.  She said, "I don't know why you would have been told that, no final decision has been made.  I would know if it had."  So, there is a chance. A small chance, but a chance.  I wish I was a person of power and influence so people would care about my opinion.  I asked if it was at a different high school if they could take the one class and then go back to their high school.  It is only ONE class a day.  She said no.  Annoying. I don't want Jorja to stop this program.  She is supposed to take AP Chinese next year and then college level Chinese classes for the next three years.  When she graduates high school she is supposed to be one class away from a Chinese minor.  This is what we have been told all along.  If they were going to make these kids go to Corner Canyon (I'm assuming that is the high school that it will be at) they should have had the kids go to Draper Park instead of Indian Hills.  Jorja lost all of her friends because they went to Draper Park.  They should have kept the kids together.  This is the problem with being the first in the program. The district can tell us things, but then go back on what they say.  So sad for my Porge right now.

Stockton had his ping-pong tournament today.  He was pretty excited about it.  He was sending me, Mike and Weston updates.  He made it to the third round.  There he lost 9 to 11.  I think he would have had a better chance if it was going to 21.  There was one score that barely nicked the table.  If that hadn't happen, Stockton would have had a much better chance of winning.  The guy he lost to won the next round and made it to the finals.  They play the finals in front of the entire school.  Stockton thought that would be fun.

I took Jorja and Preston to diving today.  My friend McKenzie was there.  She had tears in her eyes.  I hadn't seen her since her surgery on Friday.  I asked if everything was okay.  She smiled and said she had just gone back to the doctor and he told her that there was no evidence that cancer had ever been there.  She was so happy.  Yay for something good happening today!

Mike didn't get home until around 10:00 tonight.  He had a presentation at a mini Openstack conference in Salt Lake.  He said it went well.  After the conference he went out to dinner with people from Midokura.  He ended up talking with the CEO of Midokura for a long time.  He was asking questions about the church and missions.  He asked if Steve Young went on a mission.  I had told Mike all about Steve Young when reading his book, so Mike was grateful he knew the answer.  Later the guy said, "My kids go to school with Steve Youngs kids."  Haha!  Didn't see that one coming!

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