When I went into junior high, a question came up: would I take 7th grade reading?
Reading was not technically a required class, and any reasonable person would have said it seemed pretty pointless for me to take reading. I was reading well above grade level by that point. I was the only kid in my 6th grade class who did a book report on an Agatha Christie mystery...
But my 6th grade teacher was unmoved by this argument. I didn't meet the junior high's standards needed to waive me from 7th grade reading, he claimed. I can't remember what the standards were, but I'm guessing something like straight A's in 6th grade reading. I think my grades were probably lower than my actual reading ability, thanks (in part) to one of the programs we used, which I hated. (It wasn't even real reading, but various exercises and tests.) Indeed, I remember my sixth grade teacher making some snarky comment that the kids who got reading class waivers were the ones who did really, really, really well with that program I hated. My teacher said that the junior high was adamant about the waiver policy.
So it appeared I was stuck with reading class. Like it or not.
But...as it turned out, I went to the other junior high in the district. We knew that I'd be going there well before sixth grade ended. My mother discovered in the paperwork that the junior high I'd go to was more flexible with reading class waivers. So she dropped in on my sixth grade teacher one day with papers in tow, and demanded his signature. He studied the papers, and agreed it looked like she was right. He signed, although I have a sense he wasn't happy. Maybe he thought that I needed another year of reading because I didn't do my best with that one deadly dull reading program. Maybe he just hated losing the argument.
So I had an extra elective in seventh grade, which was nice.
Interestingly, I took a standardized test in 7th grade that measured basic skills, including reading level. I can't remember how I did, but I think it was something like 9th grade reading level. I complained to a counselor that I should have done better—remember I was the kid doing book reports on Agatha Christie books! And she gently explained that yes, I might have above 9th grade reading level. But the highest possible score a 7th grader could get on that test was 9th grade reading level.
