<p>"You are right, and I THINK I would be fine with this. Him? Not sure. He REALLY wants to keep playing soccer, and there are not many venues in the US for kids over 18. Not a reason to go to college though. "</p>
<p>My smart, ADHD older S wanted to go to college mainly so he could enjoy watching big city and college sports. He loved the fact that his favorite team at his college won the national championship. He also flunked out with the worst gpa I’ve ever seen, but he still feels that year was very valuable because his team won!</p>
<p>You’d be amazed at how schools can run roughshod over parents who don’t know any better. If you don’t become an expert in special education law (and be willing to be considered the “mother from hell”), making the school follow the law can be very difficult. Going through due process is generally painful and expensive.</p>
<p>My only thought is that I would fail sombody who can make an A and still making Fs in class. And it is geometry that require only doing homework, not any special talent, like writing or art or music. It sounds like somebody who needs rude awakenning ASAP for his own good. I did not mean to offend, but I’d rather share my true thoughts than making rosy statements. Sorry!</p>
<p>As a note for the future for teachers/professors “losing” homeworks. I started scanning in my homeworks for a class or two due to some teachers constantly losing them and saying it was our fault for not handing them in. With how cheap memory sticks are nowadays, it might be worthwhile scanning the homework, putting it on a thumb drive, and tossing it into your backpack right away. If the teacher says you never did a homework, take out the memory stick and offer to print it out right then.</p>
<p>“And it is geometry that require only doing homework, not any special talent, like writing or art or music. It sounds like somebody who needs rude awakenning ASAP for his own good. I did not mean to offend, but I’d rather share my true thoughts than making rosy statements.”</p>
<p>MiamiDAP ;Thanks for sharing… but can you clarify? Are you saying that subjects that don’t require special talent should be judged primarily on homework and not tests? I’m willing to consider this, but it doesn’t seem to fit my image of college. So right now,my son is in high school, where some kids benefit from all the extra points you can get from doing assignments, even if they don’t learn. It’s my impression that in the future, there will be few if any points for homework, only tests.</p>
<p>FWIWW, SOMETHING worked; Rude or otherwise!</p>
<p>If your S is interested in math and science, a great many classes he will take in college will have p-sets. You get points deducted for lateness in some classes; in others, the late homework is simply not accepted (ergo, an F). So you son needs to cultivate good homework habits. Also, it’s not simply about knowing the materials but proving that you know the materials, so it’s important to show the steps.
My S has been in quite a number of classes where there are no tests, just p-sets and take-home final which consists of more p-sets.</p>
<p>The key to completing problem sets on time in college is to be part of a study group and do them with other people. If all your friends are staying up to get them done in time, you will too.</p>
<p>shrinkwrap, my S had an F in a class w/3 weeks left in the year. I was in a panic - this was the only lteacher who didn’t post grades online so I had no clue. I asked S to list everything he needed to do to boost is grade and he did. And I also encouraged him to talk to the teacher (I don’t know if he did). Then everyday, I told him to refer to this list and chisel away. It was a rough three weeks but he did it - on his own. I told him that was the best lesson - how to dig your yourself out of a hole. He finished the the term with a B. (I still think he should’ve had an A if he had only done his work - but I have to keep my mouth shut).
Next year, he’ll be a sr. I’m stepping further back. It will be painful but necessary!</p>
<p>FWIW, I don’t think my son has any interest in Math, he’s just better at it than he is at things like History and English. And the "problem sets’ thing settles it! He may change a lot in a year or two, but you won’t see me pushing him in that direction!</p>
<p>How does writing and music take more talent than doing math? The tasks require different types of intelligence. I knew people in high school who wrote well who couldn’t do a math problem if their life depended on it.</p>
<p>Also, for the problem sets, they usually aren’t worth a lot or anything at all because a lot of people just copy. Personally, I don’t find study groups that helpful because it takes a lot longer to work in a group. It works during the first year when you’re trying to meet new people but I think it’s important to be able to study on your own, a skill that will help you in grad school and beyond.</p>
<p>Not in my S’s experience. He’s been in study groups all four years, including grad level classes–especially those, in fact, as the students found bouncing ideas off of one another extremely helpful. Profs expect students to work together but to write up their solutions individually.</p>
<p>For a child I knew, all As in Home Ec and an F because she didn’t turn in a project when she was ill at home after family called & asked the school if she could turn it in on Monday when she returned to school after her prolonged documented illness gave her an F for Home Ec! The school wouldn’t return the phone call & teacher would NOT accept or consider the project AT ALL. No doctor’s note was accepted either. Child switched out of the public school system after this culmination of refusal of school to work with family, medical providers and communicate.</p>
And then his earlier grade is wiped out? That doesn’t happen here. Any course can be retaken, but both grades will always show on the transcript and figured into the GPA. Seems a little unfair – colleges know when courses are retaken in some places, but not in others, if the earlier bad grade can be hidden from notice.</p>
<p>Another little problem when comparing the apples and oranges of GPAs/etc. from one school system to the next…</p>
<p>Shrinkrap,
“but can you clarify? Are you saying that subjects that don’t require special talent should be judged primarily on homework and not tests?”</p>
<p>I meant that if one does homework every single time in subject like Geometry, including achieving correct answer at home, there is no way this person will fail test or anything else in this class. It is true with any math / science class. These classes do not need special talents, they require complete understanding from the beginning and math require practice both of which are achieved thru doing homework.</p>
<p>Shrinkrap – Speaking from the perspective of a parent of an LD kid (not an executive function issue, so organizational issues are less of a challenge) now in college, no matter what subject your S goes into, it would be a really good thing if he could find a way to deal with organizational issues more independently before he leaves home, so he can walk out the door with a sense that he has come up with a system that works for him. Easier said than done, I know, but he is going to have to find a way to write down all of his assignments, put them on some sort of a calendar (as a kid, he will probably like electronic better), refer to it including looking at what’s due in the near and distant future, schedule time to finish his work on time, put the finished work in his backpack, and hand it in. In some college classes, there will be (major godsend) a complete syllabus that lists every single assignment and when it is due. If he isn’t able to get this into a notebook for the class, he needs a ritual in which he takes it home and scans it into his computer. Things like feeling OK about getting the email address of the TA or another person in the class that he can contact if he has no idea what is due and when are also useful. If you (or a coach) could get your S to problem-solve and come up with several approaches he thinks might work, and then experiment to find the right one, so that using his system would be something of a habit by the end of the next school year, it would be great. You should also be aware that there are some excellent colleges out there with coaching and organizational support services for LD kids who qualify. This is often a transitional service to help students make the leap to college, but in other places students can use these services more extensively. You will need to call the LD offices of the schools that interest you, find out what they’ve got, and see if your S qualifies.</p>