<p>^^of course, it is his decision. But I would make sure that he understands the options and the consequences of all of them. </p>
<p>We had this issue with my daughter (in the opposite direction; I.e. she wanted regular)…we explained what that decision might mean for later on; as long as she had the information, we were fine with her decision…</p>
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<p>too funny…
and in many ways a good thing that he has confidence to swing for the fences…</p>
<p>Sooo</p>
<p>Rigor counts.
That said,
Honors French if a B or better is likely…
if not, then have him drop to Reg French.</p>
<p>;o) </p>
<p>In admissions, students are compared to the others in their graduating class and their high school profile…what was available to them…not to other schools, students from public vs private etc…</p>
<p>I feel your pain. Our oldest is in a terribly hard and competitive private school and we too see parents and kids choosing and picking the best way to have SOME level or rigour along with a really, really strong GPA. I have seen some parents remove their kids and put them in a less competitive public school where they know they can shine academically.</p>
<p>Our daughter is doing fine in her honors courses, but would do great in regular classes or our neighborhood school. That being said, she wants to be challenged and kind of figures that if she can’t compete in the toughest pond at her school she would not be able to compete at the toughest pond at Duke or Brown (for instance). So, she is staying in honors. In addition, we have been told that colleges have an idea of the type of school a child is coming from and the pond they have been swimming in.</p>
<p>Meaning, a B in honors French at your tough little private school (so long as it is know and has accredidation) is better than an A in regular frech or A+ at the local easier school.</p>
<p>Let him stick it out and get him help if need be. Frankly, a B is not struggling. He may have a situation down the road where he REALLY is struggline and you need to move him. No need to start doing that now for a class that he can handle…but will just really have to work in.</p>
<p>T</p>
<p>^ I would like him to be in an easier school where he could have more fun.</p>
<p>Plus, he plays a competitive sport about 25 hours a week.</p>
<p>And so coupled together, he has very little time for fun.</p>
<p>He wants to stay where he is, I equate that because he does not know any better and he hates change.</p>
<p>So, be it. Probably more drinking at the fun school.</p>
<p>That said, I have seen some of the story played out and many, many parents have pulled junior from this school ( one of the top school in the country) and put them in an easier private school. </p>
<p>Yes, they got the straight A’s there and are now at better colleges…</p>
<p>than the kids who stayed at this private school and with their B’s are at their mediocre schools.</p>
<p>Sure, I agree it should be about the love of learning.</p>
<p>But, if that was really true, then all these kids would be at a very progressive school where they could spend hours on one topic and read a million books.</p>
<p>Thanks again to everyone for all the different perspectives.</p>
<p>I think it depends. For my D, getting a B in honors French vs. an A or A+ in regular French probably hurt her. She could never manage an A in honors French because her spoken French and her accent were not up to the teacher’s standards. Our school weights 0.5 for honors, so GPA-wise she would have been better off with an A in regular than a B in honors. If you’re applying, as D is, to schools that are numbers based (or that have scholarships that are numbers based), the GPA may be more important than the rigor of the curriculum. D dropped honors French 4 the 2nd semester of junior year and easily earned an A+ in regular French 4, and that tiny bit of GPA increase qualified her for a scholarship she would not have qualified for had she stuck with honors French 4 and gotten her usual B. Now, if she was truly interested in French and planned to continue with it, there would have been good reason to stay in honors and do AP French senior year, even to the detriment of her GPA, as there’s no question that she learned much more in honors French than in regular. However, it’s not a subject she’s particularly interested in, so in retrospect she might have been better off in the regular course.</p>
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<p>Are you concerned your son is going to get multiple B’s? That may be a deterrent for “better schools” But being a “B” student is not the end of the world.</p>
<p>I find it interesting that you are certain that going to a less demanding private is the ticket to an IVY. I think perhaps the parents of those kids who didn’t get into “their dream school” use this type of thinking to make them feel better. If Billy had just taken Honors English a St. Ican’tspell’s he certainly would have gotten an A.</p>
<p>Let your son takes what he wants. Your job is to guide him and help him along the way, not “strategize” his future when he is 14. Otherwise I fear it will be a long and frustrating 4 years for the both of you!</p>
<p>Thanks, Beth’s mom - my thinking too.</p>
<p>Are you concerned your son is going to get multiple B’s? That may be a deterrent for “better schools” But being a “B” student is not the end of the world.</p>
<p>I find it interesting that you are certain that going to a less demanding private is the ticket to an IVY. I think perhaps the parents of those kids who didn’t get into “their dream school” use this type of thinking to make them feel better. If Billy had just taken Honors English a St. Ican’tspell’s he certainly would have gotten an A.</p>
<p>Let your son takes what he wants. Your job is to guide him and help him along the way, not “strategize” his future when he is 14. Otherwise I fear it will be a long and frustrating 4 years for the both of you!</p>
<hr>
<p>Sorry, can’t figure out how to quote.</p>
<p>Yes, I am concerned that he is going to get multiple B’s, and it is not the end of the world.</p>
<p>In regards to the kids going to less demanding schools and getting straight A’s, I keep seeing that story played out over and over again.
It is true.
And I am watching that unfold for a few years now, and although I tried to persuade my son to transfer so that he would have an easier time, more fun, and get better grades, I couldn’t get him interested.</p>
<p>Oh so true, about frustrating. It’s only been two months!</p>
<p>I think I need to get a full time job, and distract myself :)</p>
<p>I’d like to see the matriculation list for a “less demanding” private school that supposedly places lots of kids at Ivies. Unless it’s packed with athletes and legacies, my guess is that a given private school with great Ivy placement has proved itself to be preparing the kids very well. Maybe a given school might have a close relationship with one Ivy in particular. The private day schools with the best placement (Collegiate, Roxbury Latin, St. Albans, yada yada) expect superb work from the kids academically, even though they do have tons of legacies.</p>
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<p>Who said anything about love of learning? Maybe someone else, but in case you think it was me I’ll clarify. I said about education. About what you learn. That is the whole point of going to school and college, isn’t it? </p>
<p>Or is it? Of course if its really about appearance, resumes, prestige, playing the game to get the rungs in the ladder to some kind of destination, education be damned, well then ignore me.</p>
<p>cbw123: “more fun?”…The process; the education, the experience has to be the “fun”…The work is the “fun.” The process of playing the sport 25 hours a week, the process of H French, the process of the challenge of the rigorous private school which you have “matched” for your child. That IS the “fun” or regrettably, your child is in the wrong environment or you need to adjust your expectations for the child within that environment or it may not end well (with a positive and nuturing and fullfilling experience).</p>
<p>It can’t be just about the name college in the end or what’s the point of that educational experience? I think you have it backwards.</p>
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<p>Yes, I should have put that in…</p>
<p>The less demanding private schools that the kids transfer to are honestly, not great schools…</p>
<p>But, these are kids who are legacies and therefore, it appears, they just need the high GPA average</p>
<p>and bingo, they are in their parent’s ivy…</p>
<p>Yes, I am bitter that I went to a state school. </p>
<p>I paid for school myself, and that is what I could afford back then.</p>
<p>My kids loved Concordia Language Village camps, and I must say that my D got As in the highest level French class in the years after she spent at least 2 weeks there in the summer. That immersion really works. Of course, that might not be something your son would want to do.</p>
<p>That said, both my kids were also B/B+ students in the higher level French classes. And it took some tutoring for them to do that. But those were pretty much their lowest grades (for the youngest in particular). </p>
<p>I would suggest that you read Cal Newport’s book “How to Be a High School Superstar: A Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out”. Contrary to what you are hearing from other parents, your kid does NOT need straight As to get into a top college. It will change how you look at his classwork and his extra curriculars.</p>
<p>If it isn’t already too late for him to transfer to regular French, I would suggest that you talk to him again about the pros and cons, and make it absolutely clear that YOU won’t be disappointed or think less of him if he switches to regular French. Tell him it’s not about his abilities, but about the right placement based on preparation.</p>
<p>I feel his pain–I was placed in a French class as a freshman in college that was too advanced for me, and it was really no fun.</p>
<p>Son is only a freshman. Let him challenge himself this year. Colleges look at improving grades as well as the overall gpa. Why is he spending 25 hours a week in a sport unless it is fun? Much better to drop the sport and have room for more diverse, fun, activities. Better at this age to explore than to think a college wants to see a devoted athlete. Make sure HE discusses how to improve his French studying with his teacher- that is part of her job. I personally would have him drop the sport and take rigorous classes. Better for his ability to handle rigorous college work.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the good responses.</p>
<p>Wis75 = If someone told me the same thing, I would agree to drop the sport and concentrate on school work. But, he is an athletic boy. I like him playing a sport, he has too much energy and needs to get it out. Plus, the sport is fun for him, and he needs some fun…</p>
<p>Hunt = we finally got permission for him to go back to regular if he/we want.
Can you believe that was a fight with the school???
Yes, my husband and I were shocked.
Other kids could drop honors, even the kids who had honors for 7th and 8th,
but… they were trustee kids and big donors.
We are waiting to see how he does on recent quiz.
I told him if he didn’t do well, we were moving him.
He is upset that we would move him, but I said he would be moving himself if he did poorly.</p>
<p>intparent - My son doesn’t have time for French camp because of his sport.
But my daughter who does Spanish would love this. Do you know if there is a good two week Spanish camp?</p>
<p>Colonel - I have thought about what you have written, and am trying to interpret it and make it a part of us. Thanks…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t jump all over him for a C+. There is plenty of time for him to bring that grade up if he has the right combination of skills/ability/assistance/grit. And, it is important , in my view, to let kids learn from such mistakes as we can allow. He might be over his head, but he might not, and probably he and his teachers should be the ones to figure that one out.
Don’t sweat over every 9th grade mark. I’ve been told again and again, and have also seen that kids with imperfect 9th grade marks can do just fine.
Remember that there are lots and lots of great colleges that fill the landscape between Ivy League and ‘average public university’.</p>
<p>I have the same concerns about my 9th grader. He has neighborhood friends who have about 10 minutes of homework a night and are getting top grades and my son is at a HADES school, doing 4 plus hours a night for a B+ average. It is one of those “be careful what you wish for” scenarios of top prep schools. My son is smart and hard working but he is not a genius like some of the straight A students at his prep school. I worry what this will mean for him come college application time.</p>
<p>Puckmom - I feel your pain.
If I didn’t have a kid in the same position, I would say the hard school work will help him for college.
Of course, I do have a kid in the same position, and between his sport and schoolwork, he has zero social life. He doesn’t seem to care though, he is too tired.</p>
<p>He didn’t drop the Honors French…
Still struggling through with it.</p>
<p>Now, geometry is a pain too. </p>
<p>His school is aging me.</p>
<p>Everyone was so great about responding, that I thought I would give the follow up.</p>
<p>My son decided he wanted to stay in honors French last year, no nagging could get him to leave it…</p>
<p>It was a struggle, he worked really hard, and enjoyed it.</p>
<p>He had a B to a B+ during the year.</p>
<p>Final exam was 17 pages… many kids could not finish it.<br>
Many texts from parents that day of can you believe how long the final was?</p>
<p>Well, Final was used to kick kids out of honors.<br>
If you didn’t get a B+ or above, you had to leave, regardless of grades during the year. </p>
<p>He did not get a B+, he got a B on the final.
He ended up with a B for the year.</p>
<p>And based on the final, he was not invited back…</p>
<p>Mixed feelings here.</p>