Quotes are taken from a message written by Sheila to Charles on 08/12/96...
SK>Nevertheless, there is a lot of emphasis on high academic achievement,
SK>and I have been pleasantly surprised to see many of our Student Body
SK>elected officers, cheerleaders, athletes, homecoming court, etc... be AP
SK>scholar students. While there is still a lot of peer pressure to do as
SK>little as possible to get by (as was mentioned in a previous article
SK>here), at least it seems to be OK at our school to get good grades and
SK>academic honors.
Once again, placing my situation in perspective - fewer that 10% of the 
families in our district have had any college courses at all (1990 
census), we are a rural bedroom/small-farm community with little 
industry (the school is the largest employer) and our county almost 
ALWAYS has the highest unemployment rate of any county in the state.  
With that in mind, I'd guess that in our high school of approximately 
700 students, fewer than 40 AP exams were taken last year.
Although our teachers stress academic excellence and our state has the 
Regents exams to keep the kids on their toes, we have too many families 
who simply see no advantage in working hard enough in school to achieve 
at the AP level.
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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* UniQWK #5290* Let's organize this thing and take all the fun out of it.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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