One of my earliest success posts was titled “Closet Claustrophiac.” It featured a letter a student had written me, petitioning to change his space in my new seating chart. It was highly entertaining, and quite popular among those who read it on my blog. That student was intelligent and while he had a few writing errors, his satirical tone and attempts to consider his audience were hysterical, and I recall I did give him a chance to select a new seat.
This past week, a few of my AP students approached me with a petition they wanted signed. There are three students who have the unlucky privilege of being signed up for two AP tests on the same day. Our general policy is to give AP students an hour for lunch and permission to leave campus. Because these three have both an 8 AM AP Chemistry test and a noon AP Psychology test, they wouldn’t have that time, so they sought permission to have their off-campus lunch hour on a different day. They drafted a letter for administrators, and a petition page signed by various faculty and students supporting them. I readily signed their petition, but also asked if I might share it on my blog for posterity. Enjoy!
To whom it may concern,
It is not often one in such a high seat of power as yourself receives a blatant request for special lunch consideration. Please allow me to preface my request with this explanation: I am one of three poor souls taking both the AP Chemistry exam and the AP Psychology exam on Monday for a combined 5 1/2 hours of testing. Due to the nature of scheduling for these exams, I, and those students facing this challenge with me, will have to pack a lunch while other AP takers get to leave campus to enjoy a special lunch. It is entirely possible that we will not able to eat any lunch at all, depending on the AP proctor’s punctuality and speediness in rule reading.
We realize that despite our best efforts, this predicament is unavoidable. We also realize that we will be unable to enjoy a special hour lunch on Monday. That being said, we still believe we are entitled to and deserve (especially after two AP tests in one day, a feat virtually no one else at the school is undertaking) to take a special hour lunch at some point in time. It is fair that we enjoy the same celebratory opportunity as all other AP test takers, even if that means scheduling for a different day. To clarify, my request is this: May I and those other individuals taking the two tests outlined above meet with you or another administrator to discuss a time in which we may leave campus to enjoy our own celebratory AP lunch? We may not be able to partake in a similar lunch with our friends after the AP Chemistry test, but we can do our best to rectify this injustice, this travesty of unfairness, by petitioning for a special consideration.
Clarification: We are not asking to skip class in order to take a lunch, we are asking for permission to go off campus for a normal lunch period.
Sincerely,
3 AP students
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| The original primary source document – he printed it on attractive cardstock too! |
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