High School Courses

John Foley figures he has pretty much maxed out on explaining to African American mothers why it's OK to call a black man the N-word -- as long as it's in a novel that is considered a classic. For years, English teachers have been explaining away the obvious racism in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Briana Ramirez and Troy Harrington, both seniors at Santa Monica High School, recently spent an afternoon at a local community center, searching the Internet for college scholarships. Thousands of results appeared on the computer screen, making the confusing process even more daunting. But nearby was a walking, talking college resource, ready to answer their questions.

Alex Schwertfeger doesn't know what college she wants to attend. But the Notre Dame High School junior is convinced that the key to entry at her dream school is the SAT. To boost her score, she attended a pricey private prep class and spent countless hours at home studying drills and completing practice tests. Before she went to bed many nights, she flipped through flashcards of the 200 most popular vocabulary words to appear on the test.

Today a high school, tomorrow an orchard (with a high school attached). That was sort of the idea when students from the Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale got down and dirty helping to plant some 60 fruit trees and shrubs on their small campus near Hawthorne Boulevard. The school, now in its seventh year, has an environmental focus and a college preparatory curriculum.

When school begins at Diamond Bar High School, students in the Advanced Placement environmental science class taught by David Hong may find themselves in the field studying the pattern of tracks made by the mule deer, the feeding habits of the horned lizard and the unique trill of the California quail.

Three years ago, Roosevelt High School student Jose Orea went to Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters and handed out pamphlets imploring officials to provide more college preparatory courses. It was the first time he'd gotten involved in politics, and he was filled with enthusiasm. When the L.A.

The University of California did not violate students' freedom of expression and religion when it rejected some classes at a Riverside-area Christian school from counting toward UC admission, a Los Angeles federal judge has ruled.

When Cleaster Graves noticed some crumbling mortar around the foundation of her family's aging Brooklyn brownstone, she turned to an unusual expert for help: her 17-year-old daughter, Corrie Thomas. "She said, 'You know what to do with this stuff. Go on and fix it!' " Thomas said. Asking the teenager to restore the foundation wasn't just wishful thinking.

A beleaguered Los Angeles high school is awash again in controversy as teachers, students and parents continued Wednesday to demand the removal of the school's hard-driving principal amid allegations that he improperly meddled with academic courses. School district officials said Wednesday that they have agreed to bring in the city's human relations commission for mediation at the Santee Education Complex to discuss the future of Principal Vince Carbino.

Georgia's Legislature on Monday passed a bill to fund elective Bible courses in public high schools, sparking concern among 1st Amendment advocates and generating praise from lawmakers worried that children are losing their grasp on one of Western civilization's most influential texts. The bill -- which still must be signed into law by Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue -- would fund separate high school courses on the Old and New Testaments in the context of history and literature.