<p>One thing that struck me in reading this article was the similarity of Vanessa’s experience her first semester with an experience that my daughter had her first semester in college – but the very different type of response coming back from the parents. When Vanessa called her mom in tears after blowing an exam, the mom echoed her doubts, suggesting that Vanessa might have been better off going to community college. When my daughter called me in tears after blowing her first college midterm – I gave her encouragement and began with a little story along the lines of those essays the students in the TIP program were reading, pointing out that college is much harder than high school but that DD would be able to rise to the challenge. I also remember getting specifics from my D about the problem areas on the botched exam – I pointed out where she fell short and encouraged her to meet with the prof… My d. ended up with a perfect score on exam #2 in that class.</p>
<p>I don’t fault Vanessa’s mom for lacking the emotional reserves to help her daughter- the mom herself did not have the life experience to be able to give that support. I had both the confidence of a parent with a post-college professional degree and the actual academic experience to be able to give cogent advice. </p>
<p>But even before I read the rest of the article, a voice in my head was screaming “no!” when I read the paragraph describing that exchange, and I could see how the odds were stacked against poor Vanessa. I’m glad the rest of the article was about meaningful, targeted ways to address those issues. </p>