So, with showing and whatnot, does anyone else miss a ton of days of school? I have been lately, mostly because I'm always sick, but I know horse show people tend to miss a lot too. How do your teachers tend to take it? Are they supportive or not so much?

Most of my teachers hate me, and they're really hard about making up tests and such. Are most of yours like this, or do I just have a bad batch? Especially in AP, I have no idea how I'm going to pass that class.

And I know my school has an attendance rule... if you miss 9 days a semester or more you get credit denial. And 3 or less absences a semester for exam exemption in classes you have A's in. Does anyone have this, and get around it for showing?

we had the same type of attendance rules in my high school. At the end of the semester, if you were close to losing credit in any classes, you could file an appeal and generally is you had done all of your work and had at least a B they would still give you credit (lots of times you would need to get special permission from the teachers of the classes in question).

Ohh my gosh, I completely know what your talking about for AP. If I miss even one class I'm completely behind in a bunch of work. But most of the horse show days I miss are fridays, so hopefully I can make up work on the weekend. But of course if I'm showing the weekend too....well anyway, it's stressful!!!

The more days I have to miss though, the crankier my teachers get...

In high school my school was actually really supportive. As long as I wrote a note to the attandence lady, my horse show absences didn't even count as absences. I just let all my teachers know ahead of time I would be gone.

Not that I am taking all my classes at the community college... they never take roll and I tend to skip all the time. I could probably never go and still pass the tests because all but one of my classes are at the middle school level practically...

edit to say though, that I don't have school on Fridays so I usually don't have to miss many days for shows.

Yeah, I'm having a hell of a time with my AP teacher. She doesn't take late work, even if you're absent, which I think is just dumb, because if you're too sick to go to school, you're too sick to do all your homework.

I missed the last 3 days though, and she's PISSED. Apparently she had a bit of a rant about it in class, according to my friend.

I'm thinking I'm just going to tell her I was in the hospital though, and wasn't able to email her right away and turn my work in. Maybe she'll feel bad for me?

edit bc i can't spell

When I was in high school, I did have to miss days for horse shows but I really tried to miss as few as possible because our school district had a policy where if you missed more than a certain amount of school, you and your parents would get in legal trouble. That being said, I did days for shows, but my teachers were very accomodating and understanding because I always went in early to get the work beforehand. I think as long as you let your teachers know that you are still planning on doing the work, and are even willing to do it ahead of time in order to make up for missed time, things won't be so difficult. But there are those teachers out there that just don't care, so in dealing with them, I would go to your guidance counselor or some other authority figure and work something out with them. If you work something out with the principal, guidance counselor, vice principal, etc...they can inform your teacher of the arrangements and make sure that you are not punished.

Yeah, I'm thinking of going to my guidance counselor about my AP teacher and her 'policies'. But I hate complaining, officially anyways.

Unfortunately, sometimes it has to be done. As long as you've tried to work it out one on one with your teacher, that's all you can do. If the teacher forces you to go to a higher authority figure, so be it. Good luck, and let us know what your guidance counselor says!

It always struck me as odd that the high school teams could miss school days for stuff, but when I needed to miss a day or two for a horse show, it was a no can do. Both sports. Both dedications. GL with your teachers, I always found that some were complete assholes and others were really understanding that you were pursuing something and high school wasn't your only life.

I missed ALOT of high school b/c of horses...my teachers never put up a fuss. One teacher (I had her for 2 AP classes)would ask me all about how the shows went and wanted to come watch and everything. I got pulled out of school at lunch time alot too..just to go meet the vet or stupid crap like that. I dont know why my mom wouldnt just have someone else hold or whatever. One show was crazy. I had to show so late and my mom wouldnt let me go to school late the next day. Poor horse had to come home braided even. I had to come out at lunch to unbraid him, unwrap him, and turn him out...As long as you are a good student and let the teacher know what you are doing, they tend to understand.

I went back and was pleasently suprised at my ap teachers response: she had all the papers ready for me, is letting me retake the tests instead of doing impossible essay retests, and didn't make me take a quiz today that i would have completely failed.

of course, i got a lecture about how i'm self centered and can't keep flip flopping around, but whatever. i think she gets that i'm not just skipping school for the hell of it.