Dear Extra Credit:
Why are freshmen not allowed in the National Honor Society?
Also, in P.E. class, we must do physical fitness testing. In middle and elementary school, the grade was based on effort. Now, in high school, it is not based on effort but on your actual score. For some people it is physically impossible to accomplish some of the fitness tests. Why are physical fitness scores not based on effort anymore when you reach high school?
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Figuring out what is going on in your schools is not always easy. The accounts children bring home, though colorful, may not be entirely accurate. Notes sent home get lost. Neighborhood chatter is unreliable.
To help, Post staff writer Jay Mathews, who has been covering schools for 22 years, will answer a reader question each week -- or maybe two or three if they are easy ones.
Please send your questions -- along with your name, e-mail or postal address and telephone number -- to Extra Credit, The Washingtom Post, 51 Monroe St., Suite 500, Rockville, Md. 20850. Or send e-mail to extracredit@washpost.com.
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Hooff Cooksey
Mount Vernon
West Potomac
High School freshman
Let's start with the question that is going to produce the most steam out of the ears of certain adults reading this column. Each Fairfax County high school sets its own grading system for physical education, according to schools spokesman Paul Regnier.
West Potomac High School Principal Rima Vesilind tells me that only 25 percent of your P.E. grade is based on doing something strenuous, the Virginia Wellness Test. Even if the limits of your exercise routine are clicking the TV remote, you should be able to handle the other requirements -- which include written reports and a portfolio -- without much trouble.
Whether or not this is a good thing, given the latest research on obesity and the sedentary nature of your generation, is a good topic for another column, if anyone has a view on that.
As for the National Honor Society, the idea is to recognize students who have shown they could stand up under the onslaught of high school-length papers, reading lists and final exams. So not only are freshmen excluded, but sophomores, too. Here are the rules, as relayed to me by your school's fine administrators: This is a national organization. Neither your school nor your district has any say over which grades get to participate.
The selection process for new National Honor Society members begins in the fall semester and is based on four qualities -- scholarship, leadership, service and character. The faculty adviser for the society makes the selections, with input from other teachers.
For scholarship, the candidate must have a minimum overall grade-point average of at least 3.5 for all completed high school credits. No rounding up is allowed.
Leadership does not necessarily imply that a candidate must hold an office in an organization, but there must be evidence of the student's ability to lead.
To meet the service requirement, the candidate must provide information that he or she has been and is currently active in school and community service.
As for character, the person must demonstrate the following six qualities: respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, fairness, caring and citizenship. The candidate's discipline record will also be checked, but only for the current school year, so any particularly egregious outbreaks of freshman immaturity will be forgiven by the time you apply.
Dear Extra Credit:
My parents and I have filled out at least 30 emergency care cards while I've been in high school. Why can't the school just keep one on record?
Doug Hastings
Senior
Thomas Jefferson High School
for Science and Technology
You Fairfax high schoolers are a volatile group, often changing your addresses and emergency contacts, or developing new medical conditions. The county requires parents to complete the emergency care form for each of their students at the start of school, when a student attends a field trip and when a student participates in school athletic programs. The officials involved fear if they don't have you do that every time, they will miss some important new piece of information for you.
But the computer age is coming to the rescue. An electronic version of the form is available at www.fcps.k12.va.us/DIT/forms/se3.pdf. This allows parents to complete the form electronically and print, sign and send it to the school. Last fall the school system went a step further by making it possible for schools to pre-print emergency care information on the form and send it to parents.
And now the county has a federal grant to pilot a new system that would make it possible for parents to securely access and update emergency care information online. You may have graduated by then, but at least your parents will be free of having to fill out any more of those cards for you.
Please send your questions, along with your name, e-mail or postal address and telephone number to Extra Credit, The Washington Post, 4020 University Dr., Suite 220, Fairfax, Va. 22030. Or e-mail extracredit@washpost.com.
