<p>Both Ds were self directed in their HS (and college) course selections. I’m not sure how things will go with the boy when he hits HS. There may be some prodding there.</p>
<p>“It got me thinking. Do you “put” your kids in classes? I am not referring to lower grades, just high school.”</p>
<p>yes and no. Our kids went to private K-12, so since we were paying we did have a lot of influence in their choices of classes, but it wasn’t a “my way or the highway” sort of thing.</p>
<p>In the end, they never complained about the courses they took. </p>
<p>My DS GC tried to put him in AP American History this semester. I told her no because that would mean he would take AP pyschology. He had mentioned to me many times he did not want to take that class. He was happy I honored his wishes.</p>
<p>I guess it depends on how you define “put”. If by put you mean force them to take another elective so they don’t have the desired 3 frees in a row every Wednesday and Friday…then yes, I put. If you mean force them to take the math class they placed into their first semester of college against their vocal opposition cos ::::whine:::: it’s gonna be so haaaaard…and the lab is from 4-7…then yes, I put.</p>
<p>Self-directed here, as well- with advice, as needed. Nowhere near the number of APs we talk about on CC, mostly due to schedule conflicts with some other good opportunities. It actually surprises me, today. But in the end, their course choices all made sense when viewed as a whole. </p>
<p>Many years have passed and I don’t remember what input we had on the classes our kids took in high school. There was a large group of kids who wanted that “most rigorous curriculum” designation, and our kids were in that group. They knew they needed to show they could handle AP and honors classes, and were willing to do the work. They picked which language to study and which humanities courses to take. Pretty much every student in the “most rigorous” track had to take the same math, science, and English sequences. If you decided you wanted the toughest curriculum, there really wasn’t a lot of leeway.</p>
<p>When I clicked on this thread, I thought it would be about parents choosing their kids’ classes in college. We never did, but each of my kids had friends whose parents did, every single semester. I imagine that some wanted to be sure the kids weren’t overwhelmed early on, some wanted the kids to be be qualified for a certain career, some wanted to be sure their money wasn’t wasted on what they consider fluff, and some were just control freaks.</p>
<p>Wow, I can’t imagine “picking” my college kids’ classes. Isn’t that what their major advisor is for?? I don’t even know what they have to take to graduate. I guess I’m just pretty trusting. </p>
<p>Even if my parents wanted to pick out my classes, they would’ve had no idea what to pick. They are not academics. If it was up to them, I’d probably have taken a lot more “fun” classes. I picked them all myself- no input from parents or counselors in hs, college, and grad school (I didn’t even HAVE an advisor first semester of grad school! Lol)</p>
<p>There really never has been much choice. Until senior year, a kid had to take a math, a science, English, PE, and history,. College bound kids take a foreign language, and that leaves nothing. School puts them in honors/regular. No AP until after the regular hs version has been taken, so not an option before junior year. </p>
<p>DD was on an IB/AP track so not many choices in high school. I did call the school about a teacher I felt didn’t teach an IB class correctly. That I didn’t want her to teach my daughter the 2nd year of the history IB course. GC assured us my dd would not have to take the class with the teacher. (Oh and the teacher was suspended two years later for doing the things I complained about. She is no longer allowed to teach at all.)</p>
<p>As for college, I made sure my dd took the right classes so that she could graduate on time. She didn’t like me very much at the time but I am sure she is happy now that she is able to graduate a semester early and she has a lot of flexibility in her schedule since she took care of the requirements already. I am not horrible. I have only told her to mind her requirements and to pick classes that took care of those requirements. </p>
<p>My son was in an alternative program so there was nothing to choose for him in HS. His sister was in a comprehensive HS with a “small academy” so the main choice was which academy, which she was allowed to choose. She sometimes bounced electives off me, or which teacher to choose (or not) but she had the final say. She got into all of her college choices. She asked me once, which topic-based LA class she should choose and I offered my opinion. My youngest is at very unusual school and the only choices revolve around language and one elective. They offer the languages as semester courses in MS and you do both, so that by HS you can decide. I let her pick. She is very self-directed and driven, I can’t imagine picking any college courses for her.</p>
<p>We’d discuss it because I had to sign the forms, but we pretty much agreed on whether to take CP, Honors, or AP. Electives were entirely left to him. Similar to the situation described by ordinarylives, there really wasn’t a lot of choice anyway.</p>
<p>The school offered him the option to accelerate in math over the summer after 8th grade, and we all agreed on declining the offer. </p>
<p>We’ve advised the kids. We’ve encouraged them when we can see that fear of failure is holding them back from a class they would enjoy and are more than qualified for. They haven’t always taken our advice and sometimes they have been right not to.</p>
<p>Interesting, we have a wide spectrum here on CC it seems. My kids had a LOT of choices in courses. Beyond AP and “regular” and dual (3 different colleges), they could choose within a subject, like Stats vs Calc or Enviro vs Bio, for instance. And a lot of electives, and band/orchestra/chorus, and so on. They have 8 periods a day so often filled 7, or 6 if they wanted a study hall. Given that some take language, some music, some doubled on science, etc there were a lot of choices.</p>
<p>I am definitely aware, and have made suggestions, as I said. But I really strongly feel that it has to be their choice or it can backfire, they do, after all, have to do the work.</p>
<p>We’re required to sign off on our son’s choices, but that’s about it. We discuss them with him, but ultimately, he chooses.</p>
<p>@OHMomof2, yes, before reading this site, I didn’t even realize there were high schools where kids take only 6 classes and have almost no electives. I am very grateful for our 8 block schedule–it enables our school to have strong electives, probably about 80 different offerings, and my kids would need 9 or 10 blocks to fit in everything they’d like to take.</p>
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<p>Too true. The last time my parents chose a class for me was in 6th grade when they vetoed Spanish as my language choice, and as a result, I was even more of a typical petulant prepubescent child for a few weeks. To be fair to them, though, they do live in Northern Europe and it is not one of the common foreign languages in our region.</p>
<p>I did share my 4 year plan HS with them. They really did not have any objections to the plan.</p>
<p>Well, I think most of us “indirectly” select in some ways. My son selected his own high school classes, but he knew what was expected of him. He made the selections and we had to sign it. We disagreed a couple times. We thought he took one too many APs senior year, but he did it anyways. But if he hadn’t signed up for any AP classes and wanted to slack off, believe me, we would have stepped in. Ds attended a large public high school and the there was a large variety of class “levels.”</p>
<p>Hmm. We don’t sign off on their classes. </p>
<p>At scheduling time, kids meet with their GCs to discuss, then there is an optional parent night where parents are given a presentation about the scheduling process and can ask questions. </p>
<p>But I’ve never been asked to sign off on a schedule.</p>
<p>Our kids have always selected their courses, major in college, and pretty much everything related to school. We would suggest, when asked and support their choices (including funding any needed summer school and support them if school questioned their selections). My folks treated our academics similarly. </p>