Yet, it Doesn’t Exist.
Dear Powers That Be:
I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to research the situation with the Broadcast Media program. It was enlightening and helpful, and Shane and I did explore the suggested options. Unfortunately, he will not be able to pursue any form of video production studies during high school. Instead, I will be paying a few thousand dollars to get him involved in the filmmaking program at a local theater – which will be a huge inconvenience with regard to time and travel, and won’t come with the benefit of IB classes.
Both of my sons had a very real interest in Broadcast Media, and I learned about it at least five years ago. So for five years, Broadcast Media has been offered as an option. Dylan entered high school under the assumption that he was going to take IB classes and learn about video production. He was plopped into Journalism, which didn’t suit him, and he dropped out of the pathway. Three years later, Shane did the same thing; the only difference is that Shane is able to get through a year of Journalism because he doesn’t have issues with writing.
It is not a class he wanted to take, and it is not helping him with any requirements for graduation. Without a pathway, Video Production is a wasted elective credit.
It seems terrifically unfair to me that both kids were denied the opportunity to follow a pathway that is defined and presented as an option. It is listed along with all the other IBCP pathways; yet, it doesn’t exist.
My guess is that Dylan and Shane were not the only candidates for this program, and that other students have also been stuck into Journalism and been disappointed. And they are going to continue to do so, as long as Broadcast Media is an “option” during course registration.
The Broadcast Media classes aren’t listed anywhere other than in the IB section. In fact, they’re not even available on the student registration sheets. So the three students currently taking Video Production with Shane must have also been interested – at least somewhat – in the non-existent pathway.
I am not sure who determines what is offered and what isn’t, or who posts online the course options, but the Broadcast Media pathway is clearly NOT AN OPTION at our school.
And if this pathway isn’t actually offered, then the school needs to take some responsibility. The right thing to do here is either to REMOVE the program from the course offerings, or OFFER the actual pathway – complete with a teacher who will teach production classes the way they are designed to be taught. Maybe there’s a way to combine it with TV Production that would make more sense than combining it with Journalism. Or, perhaps, you can create an all-new Journalism pathway, which might be of interest to students.
One way or another, someone needs to change the course offerings. It has already broken enough hearts and wasted enough time. Please, fix the problem – if not for my kids, for all of the future students who shouldn’t have to go through what we did.