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Liberty High

Posted: Jul 13th 2003, 7:25 am
by emilynn
Has anyone else noticed how uneven the classrooms are at this school? I mean how our Brian, who is "in accelerated" is perennially stuck in classes with "fresh from remedial" Jordan, smart but not working to her "full potential" Angela, and the like? Of course, the characters mostly all need to be in the same classroom to create interesting scenes, but still, the logic of this is a little silly considering how smart the show was in general. Usually the college track kids take harder classes than the Jordan-esque students, but at Liberty they all seem to be thrown together like monkeys at the zoo. Was Liberty's classroom mayhem the result of tragic budget cuts, causing a teacher shortage? Was Ms. Mayhew a victim of this dire situation? Can Brian stay motivated if he has to every question, in every class, all by himself for the next two years? Thoughts? :lol:

Posted: Jul 13th 2003, 6:59 pm
by Natasha (candygirl)
This has been discussed in the school thread - many theories abound!

:D

Posted: Jul 13th 2003, 7:12 pm
by TomSpeed
We could choose to apply for advanced classes individually when I attended high school. I had advanced English and social studies classes and a remedial math class. I was not a math scholar. Brian probably has some say over which classes he takes. He probably chooses some classes to be with Angela. I might look at this topic again. But that's what I have come up with so far.

Thanks for the link!

Posted: Jul 13th 2003, 9:17 pm
by emilynn
I had no idea this topic had been so well-dissected before but I guess I should have known! Maybe the screwy class system was just an oddity the writers threw in to amuse themselves, and to allow for such scintillating intellectual debates such as the "Metamorphosis"---"She wants you, man, go for it. So, getting back to that metamorphosis story...it's made up, right?" What better preparation for the Ivy League could Brian ask for?

Posted: Jul 14th 2003, 2:06 am
by dTheater
Is it the norm in public schools for students to just walk out of the room in the middle of class w/o explanation and get away with it? Or to show up late everyday? I went to *shudder* catholic school, so it must've been different.

Posted: Jul 14th 2003, 2:12 am
by Natasha (candygirl)
I went to a public school where we were given detention if we were late to class, meaning that it was possible to rack up six or seven detentions in a single day if you just couldn't get yourself to class on time. We also couldn't leave class without a hall pass, which the teachers kept in their desks.

We had women called "yard duties" who patrolled the hallways during class (similar to the old-fashioned hall monitors, except they were adults employed by the school district rather than students ratting on each other a la the Brady Bunch) - any students caught in the hallways or bathrooms without a hall pass were given detention as well.

We had two detention sessions per day - immediately after school or during zero period (6:30am). Detention had to be served immediately - either after school the day that you got in trouble or zero period the next morning. Missing detention resulted in being assigned to Saturday school (think the Breakfast Club, but ours wasn't held in the library).

I went to Catholic school and I don't remember anyone being paddled by the nuns. The worst story I remember was a boy in my sister's class biting a teacher.

:D

Posted: Jul 14th 2003, 11:39 pm
by heater_05
I too have wondered about how Jordon could be in the same class as Brian. I came up with this,

1. Brain is smart in math but not in English

(I had the opposite problem. I was horrible in math but great in English)

2. As for Angela the low achiver, I could see her doing well on some standardized test and being put in the "smart" classes.

As for how Jordon is in there class is a complete mystery.

As for tardies and skipping class. In my school it really depended on the teacher. The official policy on tardies was five or more and you get a dentention. But few teachers I knew followed this rule. Most would scold you and then I would laugh and say whatever. As I remember none of my teachers really cared if you were late as long as it was not more than 10 minutes. Most tried to give dententions and would threaten to, but never did. Most of the time I would just laugh off the threat, Honestly though I had classes where the entire class was late everyday and frankly the teacher cared but I think they felt powerless. Plus it was our senior year and you could not have paid us as students to give a crap about school anymore. As for ditching at my school it was well know that nothing would happen if you missed three or less classes in a day. So often we would miss one or two. If we wanted to miss more often times you could get a friend who worked in the attendance office to change your record or steal you a readmittance slip. Anyway I have rambled on here. Suffice to say there were ways around getting in trouble for ditching if you knew the system. I went to a tired old public school where most of the teachers were literally counting the days until retirement. But as a class we were also very mischeivious. I had friends who stole test out of file cabinets, there were crib sheets, I even knew some people who broke into a teacher's house and stole the final exam. We basically had an entire cheating underground. I think about it today and I laugh. We spent so much time learning how to cheat without getting caught that I know it would have just been easier to actually study. But what can I say that is irony for you.

Jordan

Posted: Jul 15th 2003, 5:44 pm
by emilynn
I also wondered exactly which grades Jordan was "left back in twice." Has he already been in 10th grade for the last two years, or did he fail 9th grade, get left back, pass it, go to 10th grade, then fail it and is now taking it again? Was Jordan's iffy school status intended as a plot device to be able to get rid of him later if his character got too old or uninteresting, or if they wanted to rotate in a new love for Angela? As in, he would drop out never to be seen again or something similar. Despite Krakow's tutoring, I had a hard time picturing Jordan gleefully striding across the graduation stage a la 90210, and I definitely had a hard time picturing him and Angela dating all the way through high school.

Posted: Jul 15th 2003, 6:10 pm
by Leb
i think jordan is the guy, who is older and more mature than all the krakows in the series. the one angela feels drawn to, as, imho, most girls look for older guys, because they are cooler, which is probably true indeed, at least in highschool... :) . and it has some other advantages that he is older, he can drive car e.g.
i don´t think jordan was supposed to be kicked out of the plot.
one more reason for him to be the older, cool but not too intelligent type is that it shows that angela loves him for who he is, and not because he is smart or whatever.
anyway, i live in germany and don´t really understand the american school system. it seems difficult though... :D

Posted: Jul 15th 2003, 10:24 pm
by TomSpeed
Young women are often attracted to older men. Jordan's age makes him more attractive and unavailable to Angela. She wants him more because he seems unobtainable. Plus, the fact that Jordan has failed twice gives the writers some stuff to work with in the series. Why did he fail? Who can help him get on the right track? Will he finish high school?

In my fan fiction, I have Jordan leaving the traditional high school and going to night school. Of course, I skip over 1996 for the most part. But I get the feeling that he rejects high school and wants to get away from his father. He seems to have a streak of independence which doesn't fit the traditional high school mode. Some of this feeling is based upon what happened to some guys I knew in high school who were like Jordan. Of course, this is only my plot line. Anything is possible.

Would the Angela and Jordan relationship survive him leaving school? I think it would keep going for awhile. But it would be unstable. And it wouldn't last.

He's clearly in the 10th grade during the series. You are right that it's unclear whether he failed the ninth grade once and the tenth grade grade once or some other combination. I would guess that if he's failed the 10th grade twice and is taking it for a third time, he's probably more apt to drop out once he's old enough to do so.