diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 32cfd8b8bc..1fe9c1b8bb 100755
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -14,10 +14,6 @@ _notes
 # Symlink to cur/programming/recur
 cur/programming/recursion
 
-# symlinks to sparks/
-middle-school
-topic/middle-school
-
 *.weproj
 
 cur/programming/algorithms/gwd_workspace.json
diff --git a/middle-school b/middle-school
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..ba39f8f06c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/middle-school
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+sparks/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/sparks/middle-school b/sparks/middle-school
deleted file mode 120000
index 0677deac6f..0000000000
--- a/sparks/middle-school
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-middle-school
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/topic/_notes/.gitignore b/topic/_notes/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100755
index e5e7b0914f..0000000000
--- a/topic/_notes/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-.DS_Store
-.DS_store
-*~
-*#*#*
-*Thumbs.db*
-.project
-.tm_properties
-.gitmodules
-dwsync.xml
diff --git a/topic/middle-school b/topic/middle-school
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..d3d289c263
--- /dev/null
+++ b/topic/middle-school
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+topic/sparks/
\ No newline at end of file