Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

End of the year. Graduation parties are happening right and left around here with one for us to attend this weekend and another one next weekend. Got me thinking about our past year. Whew, ScienceKid’s 9th grade. What did he do?

Today I started putting together his 9th grade transcript. So far I have each of these courses at one credit:
Rhetoric
Biology
Algebra 2
Ancient Classical Literature
World History 1
Latin
Field Ecology 1 (I’m counting our trip out west for one science credit. When I went on a similar trip in 9th grade that was what it was called and how it was counted.
PE

Art History and Music History for 1/2 credit each

That’s a total of 9 credit hours which reflects what SK put in for school hours this year. Yes, he routinely spent 9hrs a day on school work, and he frequently expressed concern about being behind, or being too lax, or not doing enough….. right.

I’ve also decided to do P/F grade for the high school transcript. Really what is an ‘A’ in a homeschool? Shouldn’t he get a ‘C’ for everything since that is supposed to be where the average is for the classroom and he is the only one in the classroom? And really isn’t the ‘A’ reserved for the kids in the classroom that are Excellent compared to all the other kids in the classroom? Or all the other kids the teacher has ever had? Besides, when he does his work, if it is not acceptable he does it over. We use each assignment as a full learning experience. ‘C’ papers are not acceptable and he is learning what makes a paper an ‘A’ paper. He takes tests in math only after he has gained total understanding of the topic so even there his tests are all ‘A’. If they aren’t he continues to work on the topic until they are ‘A’s. This is our homeschool and I don’t move the kids on until they either have the understanding of the topic or they want to move off the topic and on to something else. Grades—what’s their meaning, and this is from someone who routinely walked away with A’s on my report card.

My fondest grade-memory was when I took Thermodynamics from Dr. Carl as an undergrad. Thermodynamics, ah, now there was a fun course. Tons and tons of math. Just the stuff I love. Anyway at the start of the course he was upfront with us female engineers and shared his view that a female could never, ever get an ‘A’ from him since our brains were not wired properly and thus could not have the through understanding of thermodynamics to justify an ‘A’. I proved him wrong not just once but twice. He later helped me secure a position in a highly respectable R&D lab and while doing such he remarked about his faulty opinion and my abilities in his course. I didn’t mind his prejudice since he was quite open about it, and since he was willing to admit when he had been proven wrong. So SK will get grades when he takes classes at the CC or online classes and I figure those will suffice.

So, getting back to that end of the year transcript. Next I’ll list the book and DVD resources SK used, the books he read, the titles of the papers he wrote, and anything else that will spark my memory when I have to put together stuff for the final transcript and portfolio that will go off to colleges. I’ll also include his Science Olympiad work and medal standings in there.

Once all that is completed I’ve got to start planning for next year. I have done NONE, absolutely nothing for next year. Oh, I did order a bunch of books from RR, Reading books for SK using TWTM Middle Ages book list for high school and many of SK’s books for next year are already on the shelf but I haven’t done the planning. The —what do we need to do every week so that we cover what I want to cover. No time yet; but at least I’ve figured out his grades for the year.

Pass — What else, A’s?