Middle College

FUHSD, in collaboration with De Anza College, offers a program called Middle College to allows high school sophomores and juniors to study at De Anza college while completing the requirements for high school diploma. They emphasize on the alternative to high school. They say that it's for students who don't like high school. So they invite the current students enrolled in the program to give a speech to the audience. These students talked about failing in high school with a GPA of 1.4 and succeeded in the program. One of them said that he got only 50% in his math class in high school while at De Anza he got 114%. What does that mean? It seems that the instructors and advisors are promoting failed students to apply to the program. That's what every single student speaker bragged about. In high school he or she failed and now he or she is a good standing student ready to transfer to San Jose State or UC San Diego as a junior. When it came time to sign up for the interview, the spots were during class time. Although time slots were shown, the students were not allowed to select the time. They had to sign up in order starting at 9:20AM. When asked about not being able to select the time, the junior class instructor said that it was not allowed. It was for her own convenience and not for the students and their parents' convenience although she knew very well that the parents must be present during the interview. She assumed that the parents had nothing to do, just kicking the air and had to be available any time. So does that really show that these instructors and advisers care about the students and their parents? Why couldn't they schedule after school so that the students don't miss class and that the parents don't have to leave work during working hours? Remember, they stated indirectly that it's for the losers. So missing class is part of being a loser. Successful students don't want to miss class. Also that instructor said that if we were not happy about not being able to select the time, don't sign up. This is a way for her to discourage people to apply. For her it's her way or no other way at all. Take it or leave it. The program is not for serious students. It's for the losers. It's very unfortunate that that instructor had an attitude that did not reflect an image of flexibility and understanding, and of what the program was intended to be.