Originally Posted by Mowicz

...solving systems of equations with matrices is such a useful skill to have in highschool!

I was actually really surprised that I only learned about that this year. It seems to just be a waste of time to continue doing it the other way (also requires more thinking)...

It's like how in advanced functions my teacher said he could not teach us limits, and insisted we write out tables where we continuously add decimal places to solve our problems, until we get to Calculus and Vectors. Took nearly 10 minutes to do problem that should have taken 10 seconds...

Originally Posted by Mowicz

Sorry to barge in unannounced...but I noticed many of you have done the 'victory lap' (as I too did a few years back).

Does anyone else think the removal of grade 13 was a dumb idea? Essentially, everyone who did a victory lap merely did their grade 13...while others chose to bypass it and go to university, at the risk of being ill-prepared.

(Not saying everyone who went without a victory lap was ill-prepared, but I know I couldn't possibly fit all the sciences and maths into grades 11 and 12 without taking a victory lap...so if I did choose to go straight to university, I would have been ill-prepared)

I've noticed there is a huge difference in maturity, for the most part. A lot of people who do a four-year program are simply not prepared. I watched friends struggle in first year as well as several years of frosh.

Originally Posted by Mowicz

And it certainly does seem things are getting progressively easier...did anyone go to school in Halton? What's with this "No fail, no zeroes" thing? S:

It's not just Halton. It's in TDSB as well, and I imagine Peel too.

Apparently not failing students helps prepare them better for the real world!! So does the concept of no deadlines: where a student could hand in every single assignment on the last day of class and have it marked with no penalties.

I cannot wait to see what incoming high school freshman (2009) are going to be like when they start applying for "real" jobs in the next five to six years. Because they are quite clearly going to be prepared for the real world so much better than us.

Ahaha what a bunch of stupid bullshit. Our society is getting progressively more and more ****ed.

Originally Posted by lorend

It's not just Halton. It's in TDSB as well, and I imagine Peel too.

Apparently not failing students helps prepare them better for the real world!! So does the concept of no deadlines: where a student could hand in every single assignment on the last day of class and have it marked with no penalties.

I cannot wait to see what incoming high school freshman (2009) are going to be like when they start applying for "real" jobs in the next five to six years. Because they are quite clearly going to be prepared for the real world so much better than us.

Ahaha what a bunch of stupid bullshit. Our society is getting progressively more and more ****ed.

I go to school in Peel and I can tell you that that most definately DOES NOT happen at my highschool. Although I will admit that SOME O and M level courses have teachers which allow you to hand things in late, but on a case by case basis.

As far as U level courses go, getting an extension on anything that's weighted heavily (tests, labs, reports, etc.) is impossible unless you've been in the hospital, have a doctors note or your mother died.

Dropping the option for Grade 13 level courses was stupid imho it prepared students soo much more for first year, while allowing grade 12's the option of moving on to Uni if they where prepared.


Oh and to answer the thread.

-Commerce
-Off-Campus student housing
-I'm so excited I've got a countdown to the first day of Uni on my Facebook status.

Woooo, go Commerce!

I think in Peel it would really depend on the school. My alma matter is the second best school in Peel (stupid laptop French Immersion school winning this year), and in the top 30 in Ontario. My old teachers never let us hand in anything late.

Buuut some other schools in Peel are apparently pretty bad.

I went to Westmount, a self-paced high school here in Hamilton. All in all, I would say that the self-paced environment did prepare me for University.

There was basically one rule at Westmount: you can only hand in two units of work per week. Every course is made up of twenty units.

I've found that my experience with having to organize my own deadlines has really helped me in first year. I was already used to figuring out when work had to be done on my own, so it didn't matter that the profs don't tell you when deadlines are approaching.

So basically, my opinion is that a self-paced environment can teach you to take responsibility for your own schedule. But there do have to be reasonable limits in place.

Edit: But there is a difference between self-pacing and simply waiving deadlines. If you want to allow students to submit work late, you have to put a proper system in place, so they don't just leave it all until the last day.

In an entirely self-paced environment, there is some benefit to the planning aspect, as you're saying MarkA.

But the problem is when it's not actually a 'self-paced' environment. In certain regular highschools, teachers are still planning everything for the students, including deadlines. The students can simply choose to acknowledge those deadlines or ignore them completely and hand everything in on the last day (which is both, unreasonable for the student, and unreasonable for the teacher to grade!)

In this case, I don't think the students are making as mature a decision as you did...even though that may be what the ministry would like to think students are doing.


Haha, I remember hearing a woman from the Ministry of Education talking on a radio call-in show. A girl in grade 12 phoned in and was saying things like "This new policy is only teaching me that deadlines don't exist" etc. and the woman was squirming haha...she has to defend the Ministry's decision no matter what, so she wound up saying something like "You're an exception, it helps most kids." I was amused...particularly since that answer contradicts their no child left behind policy.

It sounds like I'm part of the minority, but I'm glad they did away with grade 13. It would have just been another year wasted in my opinion. I don't think high school really matters to be honest.

High school can never really prepare you for university, because it's setup is totally different. There is no way to really simulate university......witho ut actually being in university.

It's like teaching someone to drive on only 40km/h roads, and then expecting them to be able to do Formula 1 racing as well.

Originally Posted by lorend

I think in Peel it would really depend on the school. My alma matter is the second best school in Peel (stupid laptop French Immersion school winning this year), and in the top 30 in Ontario. My old teachers never let us hand in anything late.

Buuut some other schools in Peel are apparently pretty bad.

Mayfield Perhaps?

I go there now, I'm not sure if it's second best but it is in the top 30 schools in Ontario.

Originally Posted by KafiaJM

Mayfield Perhaps?

I go there now, I'm not sure if it's second best but it is in the top 30 schools in Ontario.

Yup, Moofield. Yaaaay! We were wrong, though. Our rank fell to 71/718 from 25/680.

And if anyone else is curious what their high school ranks, you can check out the Toronto Sun High School Report.

Thanks for the Report, I was actually looking for it while I was on the previous page. Wow, 177/718. Oh well, I still believe we have the best teachers XD

Interesting report...

If you've got some spare time, check the rankings and take note of the parents' average income for some of the best, and worst schools.

It's also good to note that it is a bit skewed...since for instance, White Oaks and Robert Bateman have special needs programs, so their scores will be skewed lower than other schools, because a very large number of low scoring (special needs and other) students go there for their special programs. Or things like IB programs will probably skew them too.

Originally Posted by MarkA

I went to Westmount, a self-paced high school here in Hamilton. All in all, I would say that the self-paced environment did prepare me for University.

There was basically one rule at Westmount: you can only hand in two units of work per week. Every course is made up of twenty units.

I've found that my experience with having to organize my own deadlines has really helped me in first year. I was already used to figuring out when work had to be done on my own, so it didn't matter that the profs don't tell you when deadlines are approaching.

So basically, my opinion is that a self-paced environment can teach you to take responsibility for your own schedule. But there do have to be reasonable limits in place.

Edit: But there is a difference between self-pacing and simply waiving deadlines. If you want to allow students to submit work late, you have to put a proper system in place, so they don't just leave it all until the last day.

Hey I go to westmount too, great school. We're only 129 in the province though. Top in Hamilton sadly enough...

Cool, my high school got 88th in the province :p