<p>Thanks CountingDown. You are so sweet to think of me and my girl. From the depths of despair to the heights of elation: the past year has been quite a ride. </p>
<p>Sorry! Back to the topic at hand!</p>
<p>my D2 who is a freshman, saw this post. She is a rather intense girl sometimes and she thought it was out there. She also heard alot about all the college drama. She took algebra I in 7th grade and algebra 2 int 8th grade and tested out of prealgebra. (7th). none of these counted toward HS. I wanted her to be challenged,. In 9th grade struggled with honors geometry was freaking out. We had her drop to regular. We said it was more important that she learn the material and was sane than what her transcript looked like etc… What good is IVY league acceptance if you are crazy? After this year I know more than I ever did about college admission process. I wish I had known about CC parents earlier. I have gained insight from these informed parents . I would have been more prepared and would have done some things differently for sure. It is great that you are asking the questions so you can guide your son. But for him to be stressed and anxious at his age is not good. He should be able to make mistakes, and not worry constantly about getting into college or he will miss the enjoyment of HS. and you will have to worry about a stressed out kid at a very vulnerable age. He needs to also learn life lessons so he can go to college and succeed. He sounds like a gifted boy and will do fine, probably better without the pressure. My D wants to be a doctor(she says now) so she is going to take science courses and see how she likes them, how she does etc… but I think she needs to explore what she likes, who she is , to make ANY kind of plan. Maybe my kids are not as gifted as others but I want to raise happy health adults. I want them to be the best they can be, and sometimes that can be different on any given day. I will tell you I get lots of compliments on my kids, teachers always ask if I have any more. That fills me with pride. Sorry for the rant but our society is so acheivement oriented it makes one lose perspective. I know I have at times then someone pulls me back.<br>
good wishes!</p>
<p>Some middle schools are alreay asking kids to be familiar with the college search process. I know my middle school child was handed a few packages in the last few months.</p>
<p>Look, the truth is that 89 in Algebra confirms that he will grow up to be a drug-addicted, homeless criminal.</p>
<p>I wish my 8th grader cared what grades she was getting!!
However, she does know where she wants to go to college, but she does not know what she wants to study.</p>
<p>To the OP;</p>
<p>Somewhere between not caring about grades at all and obsessing about every little bump in a beloved child’s academic career, there is a wonderful golden state of parental being that insures your child will attain the perfect life balance among happiness, achivevement, leisure, self-actualization, etc.</p>
<p>When you achieve that state please send me an email with detailed directions as to how to attain it.</p>
<p>Parenting has a signficant stochastic element. We do as well as we can for our children and hope they do better for theirs. I think that is the real purpose of civilization.</p>
<p>the word doomed should never be used relative to one’s child…no matter what. </p>
<p>I agree that perspective is needed, and we model that for our kids. clearly your son is doing just fine and should actually feel good about taking advanced math classes. </p>
<p>that said, I know in our area these grades are counted, however if the student continues with math, they tend to not even count the earliest math as there are the others to be counted.</p>
<p>Wow. My guy had an F in calculus (mid term grade senior year) and is happily at an Ivy now. (He did work to pull the grade up by the end of term). Males marinate longer. Most colleges would prefer to see challenging courses and no big drop in grades as the years come on (the A freshman turning into a C senior). </p>
<p>Y’all should read “How Opal Mehta got a life” – which is a funny tale of pursuit of admission to Harvard (even though the author got dinged for plagarizing a section, it’s still a good read). Even MORE importantly, you should read “Seabiscuit”. The crafty old trainer had seen way too many young horses burn out by being run too hard, too often, too soon. He carefully challenged Seabiscuit while also giving the colt lots of down time and good stablemates (time with friends being so important!). Seabiscuit was a champion – in part because his trainer did not push too much. The trainer set the stage with proper conditioning but also had faith that his horse could figure out when to get the lead out. There was no need to stand over the pony with a stick. Great read for parents everywhere. </p>
<p>I also highly recommend the comic “Zits.” You could also load that kid in the car and say “OK. I understand you have a B and are now doomed to live on the sofa until you are ninety. Let’s go find something that idiots like us can do.” – and haul him off for an afternoon of laser tag or go carts. A little mental health time is well worth the expense.</p>
<p>hoppinglass–love your suggestions. and I loved Seabiscuit~great metaphor for parents. also, having three teens I couldn’t go a day without humor</p>
<p>I took high school math and French in middle school. Those grades did show up on my transcript when I applied to college, but I don’t know if it really affected anything.</p>
<p>There seems to be a feeling here that those Bs in math and Spanish in middle school shouldn’t be taken seriously. I disagree – but not because of college admissions.</p>
<p>Both math and foreign language are sequential subjects, where a solid understanding of the lower-level courses is necessary for success in the upper-level courses. What I think the OP should be thinking about is whether those Bs indicate a drop-off in understanding of the subject. This might be worth discussing with the teacher in each case. The question is whether the student might benefit from taking the same course over in 9th grade to ensure that he understands all aspects of the subject or whether his current grades (and whatever else the teacher has observed about his performance) indicate that he is ready to go on to the next level.</p>
<p>My son got As in Spanish in middle school until the very last semester, when he got a B in the second half of Spanish II. The foreign language teachers at the high school he would be attending strongly discouraged anyone who didn’t have an A in Spanish II from taking the honors level of Spanish III, so he enrolled in the regular course. He struggled even there, although he managed, with difficulty, to get a B for the year, and he decided that he was not well enough prepared to go on to Spanish IV – a decision I agreed with but one that may have limited his college options later. He would have been better off repeating Spanish II in 9th grade, getting a more solid understanding of the material, and then going on.</p>
<p>Sometimes, middle school is just too soon for some high school courses.</p>
<p>OP, my S he had ruined his chances until we attended our area’s college night. He had the opportunity to speak to the reps from different schools and found out his GPA is fine. They encouraged him to end his jr. year w/good grades as adcomms will have only up to jr. yr. to consider admission (and maybe review the sr. grades). He felt much better and has had a positive attitude since then. He needed to hear it from someone else, other than mom.</p>
<p>i agree that some high school course can be taken too soon and at the time parents (and for sure kids) don’t know how it will affect chances down the line…so true with many things (music/sports etc)
however…he just loves this math class and enjoys the teacher and his classmates so i can’t regret his taking this class.he read the posts that people have so kindly written and feels like he is doing the right thing …for him…right now.</p>
<p>Well, if he’s reading this, let me tell him one more real life thingy. I became a paraplegic at age 25 due to an accident. Wow. Bummer. About six months after my accident a friend tells me about an infidelity in marriage. I remember thinking “Why are you telling ME about this?” Not long after someone else tells me about big money troubles. And so it went.
Finally it dawned on me. I always thought of myself as being a “good” friend. Someone a person could tell a trouble to without getting judged. But it turns out that is just part of the process. People found they could talk to me BECAUSE I CLEARLY WAS NOT PERFECT. My disability meant that I could not judge their own imperfections (not that I would, but now they felt this to THEIR core).</p>
<p>So, I have become a sounding board – for years. I’d like to think I’ve done some folks some good. My imperfections allow them to be imperfect in my presence. And . . . I’ve gone to India, lived in Micronesia, held jobs, had kids, won prizes, rescued dogs and have had a nice life.<br>
It can be a real gift to the world if you are imperfect. People need folks they can talk to.</p>
<p>I got a B+ in 8th grade math. I then proceeded to get 3 B+'s in high school math. But then I realized that it doesn’t matter in the long run. I now go to Harvard.</p>
<p>Time to step back and take a breath! “Doomed?” Hardly.</p>
<p>When my prep school AP/honors track, CTY alumni, SWE award winning, 5 year MIT/esp participation daughter asked her college counselor what she needed to beef up for admission to Cornell, her college counselor looked at her and said ’ turn the clock back to 5th grade and start over; now lets look at some second tier schools."</p>
<p>She was just beaten out of a summer research internship by kids who have been doing independent research since 8th grade, on a publishing track with 3 AP under their belts as a sophomore.</p>
<p>It is an arms race out there.</p>
<p>It’s only an arms race if you buy into the concept that it is a race. Remember your attitude influences your kids.</p>
<p>With all due respect … It very well might be an “arms race” out there. Yet, I suggest that we all step back a bit and ask ourselves, metaphorically, what an arms race actually leads to… what is the ultimate outcome? To quote author Ann Tremaine Linthorst, “the value of activity, wherever it takes place, lies in the consciousness of the individual and the qualities that motivate and manifest in the activity.”</p>
<p>What is the motivation for the “race?” What qualities result? We need to look around and beyond our own limited, fallible, all-too-human horizons to see how life is living itself out; oftentimes for the better, in spite of our pre-conceived plans for what is best. </p>
<p>I vote nay for classifying anyone “doomed,” at age 14 (let alone a 5th grader)!</p>
<p>kayak, where did you read that middle school grades count towards admissions? I need to know this too. I would love a link to that information if you read that on the UMd website.</p>
<p>Also, how does your son’s school manage to squeeze a full year of math into one semester for so many students? What school is it? It sounds quite special and unique.</p>