school

General discussion about the nineteen episodes of "My So-Called Life". Note: Our episode guide can be found here.
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Natasha (candygirl)
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school

Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Dec 5th 2002, 8:33 pm

I'm nitpicking again, but I am trying to figure out who has classes together, which is more confusing than you might think.

We know that Brian, Sharon, Angela, and Jordan are in the same English class from the Pilot, the Zit, Father Figures, Strangers in the House, Why Jordan Can't Read, etc. but is Rickie in their class too? We see him there at the end of the Zit when Brian explains the Metamorphosis to Jordan. Rayanne knows to look for him there. In Resolutions, though, Rickie tells Mr. Katimski, "Angela Chase, she's in your other sophomore english, the girl with the red hair that's kind of growing out." Previously in the Substitute, Rayanne (who is attending Angela's English class despite the fact that she isn't enrolled) convinces Rickie to come to class with them to see Vic's socks. So which English class is Rickie in?!

We see that Angela, Brian, and Rayanne have social studies together in Guns & Gossip, but when Rickie claims he was in English class (when the gun went off) Rayanne says, "What do you mean you were in English? You were supposed to be in social studies." Later in the same episode, Rickie is shown in Mr. Dmitri's social studies class with Angela, Brian, and Rayanne.

We see that Rayanne and Angela have PE together in Guns & Gossip (where we also see that Jordan has PE the same period) and Betrayal. We see Angela and Sharon in the locker room in the Zit. But then we see that Rayanne and Sharon have PE together in Resolutions.

We know Brian and Sharon have band together from the Zit.

In Why Jordan Can't Read, we find out that Jordan has shop fifth period on Mondays and Wednesdays, but Rickie only knows this because he used to pass him on the way to computer class ("used to"? Does this mean Rickie ditches computer class on a regular basis?). Rickie also reveals that Jordan usually goes to PE during fifth period on Thursdays.

In Dancing in the Dark, we see Angela, Brian, and Sharon in biology together. In Life of Brian, Delia says that Miss Chavatal wants her to catch up on the rest of the unit, which indicates she might be in the same class (I do realize that teachers often have multiple sections of the same course so it's also possible that Delia has Bio with Miss C but during a different period than Angela, Brian, and Sharon).

In Halloween, Rickie asks Angela if she's going to soc(iology) and she replies, "In a minute," which would indicate that they have class together.

In Guns & Gossip, we see Brian in the computer lab so can we assume he is taking a computer class? Or is he just there for his own geeky fun?

Miss Lerner, the geometry teacher, is the chaperone for the museum field trip, but since it seems everyone is at the museum (Angela, Rayanne, Rickie, Sharon, Kyle, Jordan, and Brian) we know it isn't a math field trip (especially since it's an art museum) because the only person who is in geometry with Angela is Abysinnia. Maybe it's the annual sophomore class cultural exposure field trip to the museum? In Self Esteem, Sharon asks Angela why she is never at geometry review, but we don't actually see them in class together so this may be another case of same teacher, same class, different period.

In Self Esteem, we learn that Sharon takes French class.

Brian reveals that he is taking calculus in Self Esteem.

In Betrayal, we see that Delia has joined Sharon and Brian on the yearbook staff.

In Self Esteem, Brian asks Angela, "I mean, do you, do you have any idea what it's like to be accelerated?" In Life of Brian, he tells Delia that he is carrying a triple minor. So far we have determined that Brian is taking calculus, English, social studies, biology, band, and possibly computer. As a college bound student, he is probably taking an undisclosed language and PE seems to be a graduation requirement brings the grand total up to eight classes. So when would he have time to take extra classes for a triple minor?
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Post by Guest » Dec 5th 2002, 9:12 pm

I've thought about this so much it's made my head hurt, so I've given up. In my high school, sophomore year we had 2 different English classes per semester (2 per semester, one each quarter) and we switched classes, so I just keep telling myself that it's the same that way in their high school. As for Brian, in the episode In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, we see him at school late at night with the Our Town posters, maybe he has to stay after school a lot for his triple minor.

On a side note: the sports director here thinks I don't do any work and post on "the so called forum" all the time, lol.

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Post by glitter_punk » Dec 5th 2002, 9:13 pm

the above post was me, glitter_punk. I forgot to log on. sorry!
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Dec 5th 2002, 9:36 pm

The thing with a triple minor is that it isn't an extracurricular activity. You have to take classes to fulfill the requirements, and that means he would have to take extra classes, not stay after school. Maybe he got Hermione's time turner from the third Harry Potter book.
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Post by glitter_punk » Dec 5th 2002, 10:07 pm

Good point... well, at my high school, I took a zero hour P.E. class which meant that 2 sections of P.E. were offered in the morning, before school starts....so I could have room for more classes during the day, maybe brian has that? And classes at Liberty were 50 minutes (because Vic Racine said stuff about being there the next 47 minutes) and my high school had the same plus a 25 minute lunch and we had seven periods... and with the zero hour it would be 8... so that could maybe be an explanation, because some people at my school had a 50 minute lunch or study hall depending on their schedule (like angela's optional geometry period) so maybe Brian doesn't get a study hall/long lunch?
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Dec 6th 2002, 1:01 am

I guess it depends on the school - my school had zero and seventh period for certain classes (civics, health, etc) and we had optional sessions because we had what were called lab days. Monday, Tuesday, and Friday we went to all six required class periods (each 50 minutes long). On Wednesday we only went to periods 1, 3, & 5 (Thursday we had 2, 4, & 6) but each class was 100 minutes long. This meant the school day ended at 1:30 instead of 2:30 so the remaining hour was tutorial - to make up tests, get help, etc. We didn't have study hall or long lunch though :(

Anyway, my point is that if Brian is taking calculus, English, bio, social studies, band, computer, PE, and a foreign language that's already eight classes. He wouldn't have time to take any other classes AND what the heck would he be triple minoring in since it seems most of his classes (except band and computer) are required courses?

I know, I know, I have to let this go!
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something else that bugs me

Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Dec 6th 2002, 1:16 am

When Brian said, "I mean, do you, do you have any idea what it's like to be accelerated?" I took that as further evidence that Brian is on the AP college track. If this is true, why is he in so many classes with Angela and Sharon? Not that the girls are stupid, but judging by Angela's scholastic apathy it seems more likely that she is in the regular track than the AP track.

The most glaring "error" is English class. If Brian is so smart, why is he in the same English class as Jordan? In addition, Rayanne's statement, "I never wrote anything for the Lit before," seems to imply that they are in an honors class which might make sense if Jordan wasn't there. When Angela distributes her blackmarket copies of the Lit, I assumed that the magazine was made up of the work Vic's class did which again caused me to assume that it was an honors class.
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Post by glitter_punk » Dec 6th 2002, 1:43 am

I understand what you're saying... maybe Angela is in honors classes, but just doesn't care, and I get what you're saying about Jordan. At my high school though, you could take things as an honors option, meaning that you were in the same classes as people, but some of them were doing extra homework and work for honors credit, while others receieved general credit... so Brian could do that, but this all seems very unlikely. Sooo, to rephrase... "If you analyze why certain people end up with certain people in classes, it'll make you want to kill yourself"
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classes! ah!

Post by likelife » Dec 6th 2002, 6:24 pm

i agree, no way to get to the bottom of this but still, it drives me crazy. one thing i can safely infer is that being "accelerated" means that brian takes regular classes but then does extra work outside of class. this might have something to do with the fact that his extra credit assignment idea for bio was so extensive.
my guess would be that occasionally, characters were put in classrooms to take up space or to sya a line, and sometimes the writers forgot what that character's schedule was like last time.
or there could a complex and very organized system that explains everything that we just do not know about.

also, i have gone to schools in which certain subjects, say, math, were tracked, while other classes, say english and soc(ial studies?) were not.

i always thought that the trip to the museum was the math teacher taking the english class.... because wasn't she covering it at that point?

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Re: classes! ah!

Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Dec 6th 2002, 7:36 pm

likelife wrote:i always thought that the trip to the museum was the math teacher taking the english class.... because wasn't she covering it at that point?
It seems like everyone and their mom was forced to teach that English class at least once.

Miss Mayhew - the original English teacher and yearbook advisor mysteriously disappeared after the Pilot (in Father Figures, Angela says, "I think she quit.")

Mr. Rinaldi (the Spanish teacher) - in Father Figures, the students tell Miss Krzyzanowski that the last time Mr. Rinaldi "taught" the class, he showed the movie "Alive." In the Zit, Brian says, "half the time, [Rinaldi] never shows up."

Miss Krzyzanowski (the counselor) - in Father Figures, she has Angela and Jordan diagram each other's sentences :wink:

Vic Racine - duh, in the Substitute

[in Why Jordan Can't Read, we see Jordan and Angela, presumably in English class, but I don't remember seeing a teacher in the classroom]

Miss Lerner (the geometry teacher) - in Strangers in the House she is giving the students a quiz, in Halloween she is dressed as Obi Wan
:shock:

Mr. Katimski begins his career at Liberty High in Self Esteem

Apparently only Mr. Demitri (the social studies teacher who we see in the Pilot, Guns & Gossip, and the Substitute), Miss Chavatal (the biology teacher who we see in the Pilot, Dancing in the Dark, and Self Esteem), and Principal Foster are the only ones who somehow escape teaching this English class!
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Re: school

Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Dec 6th 2002, 7:42 pm

candygirl wrote:We know that Brian, Sharon, Angela, and Jordan are in the same English class from the Pilot, the Zit, Father Figures, Strangers in the House, Why Jordan Can't Read, etc. but is Rickie in their class too? We see him there at the end of the Zit when Brian explains the Metamorphosis to Jordan. Rayanne knows to look for him there. In Resolutions, though, Rickie tells Mr. Katimski, "Angela Chase, she's in your other sophomore english, the girl with the red hair that's kind of growing out." Previously in the Substitute, Rayanne (who is attending Angela's English class despite the fact that she isn't enrolled) convinces Rickie to come to class with them to see Vic's socks. So which English class is Rickie in?!
Okay, I retract my theory that Rickie was in the same English class with Brian, Sharon, Angela, and Jordan.

In the Zit, Rickie comes into the class and asks, "Where's the teacher?" and Brian replies, "It's Rinaldi. Half the time, he doesn't show so..." which makes it sound like Rickie isn't in the class. In addition, when Brian starts explaining the Metamorphosis to Jordan, Rickie says, "Wait, what book is this?" which again implies that Rickie isn't in the class. True, Rickie's attendance record doesn't seem to be stellar, so it's possible that he skipped class when Rinaldi introduced Kafka.
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Post by SanDeE* » Dec 7th 2002, 12:37 am

I don't know...maybe it's just that the high school I went to didn't have this...but what the hell is a triple-minor?!? How do you minor or major in anything in high school, especially if you go to a public school?

I bet Angela is in some of the upper-level classes, but just didn't care (don't remember who said that a little earlier - sorry). At my high school, there were typically two levels of the same class: TAG (Talented and Gifted=accelerated) and the regular level. Many times there was only one section of the TAG class, so if we had a schedule conflict, we were just out of luck. Or if there were too many people wanting to take it. It was nearly impossible to get into a TAG class if you didn't start in them Freshman year. I heard from my little brother they finally added a second section of TAG English last year. I took TAG English, Bio, and Chemistry. I took regular History/SocStudies classes, as well as up to French V. I was in AP and Ind. Study Music Theory classes. So sometimes, kids on the college bound track take all different levels of classes. Sometimes it's just unavoidable.

So it's possible that Brian has some schedule conflict with all the advanced classes he's taking, and has to take a regular-level class (like bio or English) and is doing the extra work on the side. Some people at my school did that. And also, we don't know what Brian wants to major in in college. Can we assume math? So maybe Bio and English aren't his top priorities.

On a side note - Brian is HOT!!! I never realized until I got the discs and re-watched the eps. Okay. We can get back to the original topic now.

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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Dec 7th 2002, 4:05 am

Kristin wrote:I don't know...maybe it's just that the high school I went to didn't have this...but what the hell is a triple-minor?!? How do you minor or major in anything in high school, especially if you go to a public school?
I didn't get that either. We had required courses and electives but no majors or minors.

I guess all this accelerated stuff was confusing to me because my high school didn't have the "take the regular class with everyone else but do extra work to get honors credit" or the "no more room in the honors class" options. If you wanted honors or AP credit, you had to take the actual honors or AP class, and there was no such thing as not enough room in the class, probably because they had more than one section.

My experience was that no one like Brian would be in a class with Jordan, especially for English. There were some required classes where they threw everyone together (freshman Health, PE) but most of the classes were tracked - English, science, math, history, etc. - and required consent to enroll based on the previous year (so this year's English teacher had to authorize which English class you registered for next year).

Based on Brian's verbal aptitude (his actual conversations not always withstanding), I would guess that he was put in the accelerated English class even if he wasn't really interested in studying it in college. The thing about Brian is that we can't really tell what his interests are. He excels in everything because he is expected to, so I am sure he would put as much effort into bio and English as he would into calculus. Compulsive overachiever!
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Dec 8th 2002, 4:38 am

In Father Figures, Angela says she has to go to health.

In Resolutions (in the scene where Rickie falls asleep in Mr. Katimsky's class), he tells Angela, "I have to get to soc" and leaves but he was previously seen in the same social studies class with Angela. Weird?
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Post by Megs » Dec 11th 2002, 11:50 pm

I wasn't sure it I should put this here, or in my thread where I mention the characters bags, but did anyone else notice that Rickie never carries books? He never has a bag? Maybe it is only in the first four episdoes (I am rewatching them). Does he have a bag in the last episodes? I'm wondering what the writers are trying to say about Rickie with the fact that he has no "baggage".

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