ITA with you Frog. The thing we wrestle with here is that ds' school program mantra is all about "getting into the *best* college", and GPA is stressed by his counselor, as well as by a lot of parents so there are a lot of students hyper-focused on it. DS' counselor has gone so far as to point out that if you opt to add high school courses taken in middle school to your transcript you might "accidentally" lower your cumulative GPA by adding in additional classes with non-weighted As and the same can happen by taking additional classes during high school which aren't weighted.
PB, this is what we are running into. Much as I am trying to encourage DD to explore areas that interest her (math, music and visual arts), she constantly has the school culture whispering in her ear, "How will that affect your ability to get into college?" This whole discussion was prompted by the school giving out class rankings which I think is somewhat ludicrous after one semester of classes. Some of DDs friends are talking about dropping band/orchestra because of the GPA effect.
DD has no desire to drop music. She's just irritated by an imperfect system. As a parent, I'm trying to help her keep things in perspective. I keep reminding her that I have no worries that she will get into college - that's pretty much a given unless something truly catastrophic happens. I told her that I want her to focus on figuring out what she wants to do in life and how college fits in with those goals.
I was curious whether anyone had seen a better weighting system. I'm not hearing that there is one out there.
