doliveira
11-21-2006, 03:59 PM
Life has not been easy, after been hit by two hurricanes in Florida (Ivan and Wilma - this last one destroyed my business and left us with nothing), we decided to run with the kids and started driving north. My daughter (a straight "A" IB student, "Best of Broward" award winner, member of the French and Spanish honor society, had dreamed about becoming a neuro-surgeon after my 10 year old son had a freak accident) mention that Duke had a great program. With no electricity, no potable water and no food at home due to Wilma, we started a journey, gas station-to-gas station (due to gas shortage, we were allowed to put only $20 per station until we reached Jacksonville, FL) to the "hope land" - so we thought.
After arriviving in Durham, we immediately noticed the southern way. People actually stopped at the stop sign and gave us the right of way, they asked "how are you doing?" and expected an answer, everything looked so different. We felt right at home.
Unfortunately, we had little money so we could only stay for a couple of days. We hoped to return soon to stay.
On our way home, we decided to make a couple of stops and Charlotte was one of the cities we chose.
Upon our arrival back in Florida, we decided to move out and take our chances.
My first priority, as a concerned parent , was to find a good school which could match my daughter's curriculum at Atlantic high, at the time the 18th best high school in the US.
We found Myers Park High in Charlotte, which ranked 37th on Newsweek list at the time.
We visited Dr. Thomas, the IB coordinator. He spoke about the program for three hours and convinced us to transfer my daughter, adding some perks such as parking lot - she was a junior - and guaranteed us that minimal changes would occur, if any.
After three months waiting in Florida to move (January 2006), we finally arrived in Charlotte.
Our dreams were chattered when, upon arrival, Dr. Thomas no longer wanted to talk to us. Apparently, we had to deal with a person who had just been in charge of registering IB students and had no experience at all with the program.
She placed my daughter in several non-IB classes and others which she had already taken in Florida but were neither accepted in the Myers Park IB (I thought IB was international!!!) or had to be taken again because where AP, not IB. We were astonished and angry. After several calls to Dr. Thomas and other school officials, we ended up meeting the principal (who had just arrived there from another school and had no clue about the IB program either). After a long conversation, they decided to "allow" my daugther to take an AP class with she had already started in FL but was not offered in the junior years at MP (in FL the school supports kids who want to excel but MP only offers this class to senior!). They all told us that she would never make it, but guess what? She scored a "4" on the AP test, better than most seniors.
We believed the problems were solved. How wrong could we be!
When the new year started, MP told us that for my daughter to get an IB diploma, she would have to take 8 (eight) IB classes.
Now, let's stop here for a moment! We called the IB office in NYC and Geneva and they have no record of ANY student who took more than 6 (six) classes. The average is 5 (five). According to them, it is IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to have that many IB classes simultaneously.
We also called the CMS (by the way, superintendent Gorman's saying that his doors are open for any concerned parent is a joke. After several calls, we were able to speak to the chief-of-staff who just landed this job a couple of months ago and had no idea how to assist us. At least he mentioned that he never heard of such situation where someone had that many IB classes. Aparently, he also believed that it was a "mission impossible" but did not want to get involved) but they said that it was North Carolina's fault because the curriculum here is "different".
Continuing, my daughter got so overwhelmed not by the classes but by the huge amount of homework that she started to get depressed. One day, since she could not handle anymore, she took medicine to end her life.
Thank God, we were able to take her to the hospital and save her life. Such a smart girl, with so many dreams and a great future.
We went to speak to Dr. Thomas and another social worked at MP and, to our surprise, they immediately told us to take her out. Our impression was "take her out before she does something here!" attitude.
After 6 years of hard work, my daughter was out of the IB. All thanks to Myers Park and CMS combined incompetence.
We ended up tranferring my daughter to Ardrey Kell (what a school!!! The teachers and staff "really" care about the students).
Even though she stayed two weeks without school, they helped her in catching up and did everything possible to make her feel at home. Especially Mr. Clark.
We all have tried to make the best of it, but for obvious reasons, my daughter still feels she failed us and herself when, in reality, Myers Park and CMS committed "academic murder" to my daughter's dreams of going to Duke.
Looking back, I feel desperation and betrayal for changing schools without doing my homework and as a parent must do. Furthermore, I feel I have failed my daughter.
My hope is that other parents who will face the same problem, will take the time to check the school's curriculum carefully prior to changing it. Check not only the year, but the ones to come.
And for CMS and Myers Park, the "No Child Left Behind" is nothing more, nothing less than a political tool for their own interests. They don't care about our children, but in getting high scores so they can fulfill their political agendas.
At least, Dr. Thomas, thank my child for her "4" at the AP test which probably will help your school scores and get more money and more incentives/salaries to your teachers.
After arriviving in Durham, we immediately noticed the southern way. People actually stopped at the stop sign and gave us the right of way, they asked "how are you doing?" and expected an answer, everything looked so different. We felt right at home.
Unfortunately, we had little money so we could only stay for a couple of days. We hoped to return soon to stay.
On our way home, we decided to make a couple of stops and Charlotte was one of the cities we chose.
Upon our arrival back in Florida, we decided to move out and take our chances.
My first priority, as a concerned parent , was to find a good school which could match my daughter's curriculum at Atlantic high, at the time the 18th best high school in the US.
We found Myers Park High in Charlotte, which ranked 37th on Newsweek list at the time.
We visited Dr. Thomas, the IB coordinator. He spoke about the program for three hours and convinced us to transfer my daughter, adding some perks such as parking lot - she was a junior - and guaranteed us that minimal changes would occur, if any.
After three months waiting in Florida to move (January 2006), we finally arrived in Charlotte.
Our dreams were chattered when, upon arrival, Dr. Thomas no longer wanted to talk to us. Apparently, we had to deal with a person who had just been in charge of registering IB students and had no experience at all with the program.
She placed my daughter in several non-IB classes and others which she had already taken in Florida but were neither accepted in the Myers Park IB (I thought IB was international!!!) or had to be taken again because where AP, not IB. We were astonished and angry. After several calls to Dr. Thomas and other school officials, we ended up meeting the principal (who had just arrived there from another school and had no clue about the IB program either). After a long conversation, they decided to "allow" my daugther to take an AP class with she had already started in FL but was not offered in the junior years at MP (in FL the school supports kids who want to excel but MP only offers this class to senior!). They all told us that she would never make it, but guess what? She scored a "4" on the AP test, better than most seniors.
We believed the problems were solved. How wrong could we be!
When the new year started, MP told us that for my daughter to get an IB diploma, she would have to take 8 (eight) IB classes.
Now, let's stop here for a moment! We called the IB office in NYC and Geneva and they have no record of ANY student who took more than 6 (six) classes. The average is 5 (five). According to them, it is IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to have that many IB classes simultaneously.
We also called the CMS (by the way, superintendent Gorman's saying that his doors are open for any concerned parent is a joke. After several calls, we were able to speak to the chief-of-staff who just landed this job a couple of months ago and had no idea how to assist us. At least he mentioned that he never heard of such situation where someone had that many IB classes. Aparently, he also believed that it was a "mission impossible" but did not want to get involved) but they said that it was North Carolina's fault because the curriculum here is "different".
Continuing, my daughter got so overwhelmed not by the classes but by the huge amount of homework that she started to get depressed. One day, since she could not handle anymore, she took medicine to end her life.
Thank God, we were able to take her to the hospital and save her life. Such a smart girl, with so many dreams and a great future.
We went to speak to Dr. Thomas and another social worked at MP and, to our surprise, they immediately told us to take her out. Our impression was "take her out before she does something here!" attitude.
After 6 years of hard work, my daughter was out of the IB. All thanks to Myers Park and CMS combined incompetence.
We ended up tranferring my daughter to Ardrey Kell (what a school!!! The teachers and staff "really" care about the students).
Even though she stayed two weeks without school, they helped her in catching up and did everything possible to make her feel at home. Especially Mr. Clark.
We all have tried to make the best of it, but for obvious reasons, my daughter still feels she failed us and herself when, in reality, Myers Park and CMS committed "academic murder" to my daughter's dreams of going to Duke.
Looking back, I feel desperation and betrayal for changing schools without doing my homework and as a parent must do. Furthermore, I feel I have failed my daughter.
My hope is that other parents who will face the same problem, will take the time to check the school's curriculum carefully prior to changing it. Check not only the year, but the ones to come.
And for CMS and Myers Park, the "No Child Left Behind" is nothing more, nothing less than a political tool for their own interests. They don't care about our children, but in getting high scores so they can fulfill their political agendas.
At least, Dr. Thomas, thank my child for her "4" at the AP test which probably will help your school scores and get more money and more incentives/salaries to your teachers.