Honor roll/HS graduation -

[BigAltheGreat921]

Bringing back two things I asked on the old forum:

--Did Chris actually make honor roll in high school? He's bragged about this before, sometimes as a way of getting back at the trolls. I have doubts about this claim, given he slept through most of his classes and/or read Goosebumps books (not to mention the F in his English class). It's likely he did very little work, considering the school district just passed him through so Borb wouldn't pursue legal action.

--What happened at his graduation ceremony? Did he really throw a fit and run out of the auditorium like he said he did, because he wasn't praised for getting through high school despite his autism? Unless there's a tape recording of the ceremony out there, we'll never know what really happened.

I've always considered Chris' accounts of his past unreliable, given he likes to spin certain events in a more favorable light, because he hates to have anything bad (in his mind) happen to him.

 

[Golly]

Chris likely made honor roll, but only because he was taking far less than honor level classes.

 

[Bgheff]

It's possible he made honor roll. As you said, if they just passed him along and he seemed very offended by his bad grade in the Song of Christian. My guess is he either was in a bunch of remedial classes, or just normal classes and the teachers gave him good marks to shut him up and avoid any meltdowns. There is no chance in hell he was in any honor classes though.

As for the graduation, I assume he is being truthful. Chris saw it as a massive injustice that he just graduated without any kind of special awards, and saw it as the school playing kick the autistic. He also mentioned it was a source of conflict with Bob, who was angry at the way Chris acted. I assume he did much of what he said, since it came to no more then attention seeking pouting.

 

[Male]

The Graduation was the start of his never ending downfall. When he went up to get his diploma he excepted to get a award just for being great, instead reality called and it told him that he never special. Once he got the message, he responded in what is now considered a typical Chris response: he ran away blubbering like a baby, making his father feel rightfuly ashamed of him. He even whined about how his tantrum didn't even get a mention on the yearbook, further cementing him being a nobody.

 

[snowkitten91]

I imagine that the school staff was just glad to finally be able to get rid of their "special snowflake" (and his crazy parents) and didn't really care if Chris went to throw a temper tantrum after handing him his diploma or what he thought about them afterwards since he wasn't their problem anymore. Sad, but most probably true.

 

[TheMadProphet]

Interesting questions. I'd say a single account by Chris would naturally be unreliable. Is there any sort of secondary eyewitness to the events? That would be the best way to know. However, his description does line up with his typical behavior. I'd say it's mostly reliable, but not entirely, since there's no way to really confirm it.

I'm a little suspicious of the whole honor role thing though. But like others have said, perhaps it was only low-level remedial courses.

And in a sudden moment of clarity, I realized that since I'm in the middle of going to school to be a high school History teacher, I might end up teaching someone like Chris.

...Oh Lord, give me strength....

 

[Jozef]

They probably only put Chris on the honour roll to make him feel better, because he's "special". Schools are always pulling crap like this.

 

[Tubular Monkey]

I have no doubt that he was on the honor roll. He's mentioned it so often and so smugly that I'm certain he was at least once. Public schools sometimes end up burdened with disruptive or flaky kids that belong in a more supervised institution. In case Chris, Barb and the ghost of Bob misunderstand this, I mean an "institution" of developmental learning and hands-on care, not the asylum at the beginning of Amadeus. Anyway, these public schools lack the personnel to deal with problem kids, especially if they have defiant rube parents who refuse to swallow their pride. The schools have their hands tied, and so push the kids through the system. They know they'll be duds, so they follow the path of least resistance and just let them slide. Is it fair that a classmate probably ended up with a B average because his essays didn't use the correct citation formatting, and Chris had an A average because he learned to stop screaming at the teacher when he made poopies? No. But everyone else was preparing for a future in the real world, and Chris was preparing for a life of isolation in his bedroom. That he is so proud of his honor roll is just proof that he is far too mentally retarded to understand that so much less was expected of him than of anyone else.

 

[José Mourinho]

Pretty sure he made the honor roll. But posting this again.

Generally speaking, Chris's memories of high school still hold great significance for him. This is unsurprising, given that high school was the last time he regularly got out and about in a social environment that seems to have at least partially accepted and tolerated him, though this was most likely because snapping at an autistic child in a public school can get you suspended.

 

[CatParty]

did anyone ever check the local newspaper? like not the regional one, but like most towns have a paper just for their town news. and i remember my hometown paper would publish the students who made honor roll.

but to answer, my opinion is "no" if he were to get it on real grading systems or "yes" if they gave him high mark for not shanking a teacher as they tend to hand out to special ed kids.

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

did anyone ever check the local newspaper? like not the regional one, but like most towns have a paper just for their town news. and i remember my hometown paper would publish the students who made honor roll.

This is a great idea, my paper did this too. However, since it was so long ago, it's likely not archived online and my require actually going to the newspaper office to look through microfiche editions.

 

[CatParty]

did anyone ever check the local newspaper? like not the regional one, but like most towns have a paper just for their town news. and i remember my hometown paper would publish the students who made honor roll.

This is a great idea, my paper did this too. However, since it was so long ago, it's likely not archived online and my require actually going to the newspaper office to look through microfiche editions.

the dacwicki code

 

[punchabunch]

Well, When I graduated I made honors. Its not something I take alot of pride in, as to be honest I am not even sure if I worked hard enough to GET honors. Just being done with highschool was enough honors for me. Chris just takes any achievement he gets and runs for it. And seeing as how this may have been his last really big achievement, thats why he acts like its a big achievement.

Its also why he plays PS3!

 

[Tomboy]

The Graduation was the start of his never ending downfall. When he went up to get his diploma he excepted to get a award just for being great, instead reality called and it told him that he never special. Once he got the message, he responded in what is now considered a typical Chris response: he ran away blubbering like a baby, making his father feel rightfuly ashamed of him. He even whined about how his tantrum didn't even get a mention on the yearbook, further cementing him being a nobody.

I don't know anyone who would want their childish temper tantrum put in a book for their former classmates to remember them by. But knowing Chris, he wants every bit of the spotlight he can get.

 

[BillRiley]

The Graduation was the start of his never ending downfall. When he went up to get his diploma he excepted to get a award just for being great, instead reality called and it told him that he never special. Once he got the message, he responded in what is now considered a typical Chris response: he ran away blubbering like a baby, making his father feel rightfuly ashamed of him. He even whined about how his tantrum didn't even get a mention on the yearbook, further cementing him being a nobody.

^Quite right. I still like to think, based on no evidence what-so-ever, that there's a VHS tape of the event mouldering away somewhere in 14 Branchland Ct. After all, how could Barb not want a record of her precious snowflake getting the honors and awards he so richly deserves?

 

[CatParty]

The Graduation was the start of his never ending downfall. When he went up to get his diploma he excepted to get a award just for being great, instead reality called and it told him that he never special. Once he got the message, he responded in what is now considered a typical Chris response: he ran away blubbering like a baby, making his father feel rightfuly ashamed of him. He even whined about how his tantrum didn't even get a mention on the yearbook, further cementing him being a nobody.

^Quite right. I still like to think, based on no evidence what-so-ever, that there's a VHS tape of the event mouldering away somewhere in 14 Branchland Ct. After all, how could Barb not want a record of her precious snowflake getting the honors and awards he so richly deserves?

unless she knew he wouldn't be getting anything.........

 

[Henry Bemis]

The Graduation was the start of his never ending downfall. When he went up to get his diploma he excepted to get a award just for being great, instead reality called and it told him that he never special. Once he got the message, he responded in what is now considered a typical Chris response: he ran away blubbering like a baby, making his father feel rightfuly ashamed of him. He even whined about how his tantrum didn't even get a mention on the yearbook, further cementing him being a nobody.

^Quite right. I still like to think, based on no evidence what-so-ever, that there's a VHS tape of the event mouldering away somewhere in 14 Branchland Ct. After all, how could Barb not want a record of her precious snowflake getting the honors and awards he so richly deserves?

This assumes that either Bob or Barb believed in their son's capabilities to any degree.

If not Borb, there's a Manchester alum somewhere who rummaged through old home videos and watched the graduation fer kicks and giggles, saw Chris, went "oh, that guy," and promptly forgot about him a second later.

 

[sparklemilhouse]

And in a sudden moment of clarity, I realized that since I'm in the middle of going to school to be a high school History teacher, I might end up teaching someone like Chris.

...Oh Lord, give me strength....

That's why I won't teach!

 

[Spork]

Different schools have different requirements for the honor roll. It's not unlikely that "honor roll" at MHS was "Have a GPA over 3.0", something you can nail without honors classes provided you do well enough in regulars classes.

I've been in regulars classes before. When I was in 12th grade, I ended up taking a regulars earth sciences class. One of the people in the class stuffed a metal pin into one of the electric sockets because he "wanted to see what would happen". When I took a regulars history class, I ended up grading someone's test and they apparently thought that Winston Churchill was the Emperor of Japan(that, or their geography was so bad they confused England with Japan). The same history class didn't believe in the existence of mid-air refueling planes and drove the poor teacher to multiple mental breakdowns.

All you need to do is to pay a tiny bit of attention in class and read the relevant portions of the textbook and you're guaranteed an A. You have to be a special kind of "school is for fools" ignorant to fail a regulars class, and I don't think Chris fits that criterion. Heck, the autism card wouldn't even be necessary.

As for the graduation, it happened. What's so suspect? Chris lost out on an award, threw a hissy fit when he got his diploma, and ran somewhere to cry. Nothing Chris wouldn't willingly admit to a stranger in a bid to fish for sympathy.

 

[Tubular Monkey]

I envy these backwards high schools. I had to work my tail off to get a decent GPA. I doubt if Chris would have passed more than a couple freshman classes.