Yessssssss!

The day has finally arrived!  Ruby is finished with 9th grade at Career Path High!  She went out with a bang and a solid 4.0, with hours to spare in the school year.

CPH is a new charter school that just opened last fall.  The premise is that students can go at their own pace.  The assumption is that that pace will be faster than traditional school, so that the students can add in vocational classes.  All the coursework is online, however, there is a campus where the students can study.  The experience was a mixed bag for Ruby.  She thought she would be able to participate in the nursing program, but it's only for juniors and seniors.  As a freshman, she had to focus on her core classes, so she didn't get to utilize the state of the art medical teaching facilities that the school has access to at the DATC.  Also, she didn't realize the school would be so totally online.

For some kids, the learning center was appealing.  Ruby didn't like it because she had a little run-in with some of the other students early in the year, and they taunted her whenever she went in there.  (She told a kid not to swear.  Wrong crowd for such a suggestion!)  So Ruby studied at home most of the time, where there are a LOT of other interesting and fun things to do besides studying.  She got behind first semester, and then more behind when we went on some trips in the spring.  The only deadline the school had for coursework was the last day of the year, and the teachers, while sometimes reminding the kids to stay on track, never held them accountable.  Part of the premise of the school is that the student is in charge of his or her own pace, so you have to be very mature to discipline yourself.  It a learning process.  (Incidentally, the school, by and large, did not draw the type of student who is extremely self-motivated.  They drew students who had maybe not been successful at their public schools, so it was a difficult dynamic.  Ruby fit their desired profile to a T, though.)  Also, there was a significant amount of restructuring during the year.  Teachers and administrators dropped like flies, and were constantly being replaced.  Some of the teachers were very difficult to get a response out of.  Ruby had to be extremely persistent in emailing the teachers and counselors, which she was, but she still had a lot of work to do at the end.

So, for the last two months of school, there was never a moment when Ruby wasn't either studying, teaching, practicing or going to ballet, guitar or play practice.  If there was such a moment, Scott or I would be nagging her to death.  It was brutal.  Absolutely brutal.  I was exhausted from questioning Ruby's study habits each time she took a break to eat or get a drink.

The way the online system works is cool.  The students can take a pre test for each section of a course.  If they get a good score on it, they skip the work on that section.  She was able to skip a lot of the English sections.  The other option students have is to go back and retake each section or test up to two times, to improve their scores.  Ruby did that a lot, so it was much more work than a traditional class, but she also learned more by re-doing those sections, re-studying them each time.  I love that option!  Especially since it eventually led to her perfect 4.0.  It's a good feeling to be taking that with her to high school at Davis.

The very last day of the school year, Ruby still had a B in her first semester of math.  She was so tired of homework, she debated whether to throw in the towel and call a 3.9 good.  Somehow, she mustered up the will to go to the learning center and get special permission to go back and retake several sections from that class, inching her grade up to an A.  I am so proud of her!  Coming out of that school with everything completed to the level she wanted must have been such a relief to her!  I know it was for me!

Yesterday, Ruby kept saying giddily, "I can do anything I want!  School is OVER!"  Both Ruby and Golda had such a heavy course load during the school year that there was never truly a feeling of being finished with homework, especially with Golda's AP class.  You're never finished studying.  Golda would always rush in the house and sit right down at the computer, whenever she was home.  If they had free time, it was with the specter of unfinished work hanging over their heads.

So, the absolute freedom of summer is soooooooo sweet!  Granted, they do have practicing and the play and dance and teaching, and there is the question of making money over the summer, which involves yard work at Dad's office and planning several kids' camps, but there are moments of tranquility.  I wouldn't be surprised if Ruby stayed up all night last night watching a whole season of Design Star.  Remember TV, Ruby?!   Ahh, sweet freedom.  This is why I love summer!