I’m a new poster on this forum, though I’ve enjoyed gleaning some information already from reading casually from time to time in the past few months.
Disclaimer: my daughter is only entering 8th grade. (Thank goodness, because I want her around for a looong time yet.) OK, call me overeager to envision her future possibilities, but I don’t discuss any of this with her. I am simply enjoying the process and want to be ready when the time comes. I admit I would be thrilled for her to go to a selective school but I will not be pushing or pressuring her to apply for an elite school unless that school is a “fit” in every way for HER.
My main question for those of you who are completing this process: How much continuity in grades have you seen in your children (and in your children’s peers, if you happen to know that) in the transition from middle school to/through high school, if study habits remain fairly consistent. I know that’s a very big “if”, and that all answers will just be anecdotal. I guess I’m wanting to know if it becomes a much steeper climb to maintain top grades as the years progress. Obviously, the material becomes harder, but does it become harder relative to the ability to master it at a given age?
So far my daughter has made straight "A"s throughout most of elementary school and all of middle school, while being active five-six days per week with ballet and practicing two musical instruments (she will have to choose her priorities soon.) Any struggles she has keeping her grades high have involved juggling the time-management of her activities, not the challenge of the material itself. The school honor role is posted, so I estimate she is in the top ten percent of her peers academically, so far. Our small-town public school system is average in a state ranked fairly high in education . My daughter is quite bright, a voracious reader of good fiction, but not really gifted. She is competent and conscientious but not driven. She loves her activities but is not passionate, and is reasonably social but not a strong leader. ( And that is OK with me…she is healthy, happy, kind and balanced.) I guess I just want to project a little into the future and envision whether those straight "A"s/honors courses will be likely a part of her high school future, or whether she will more likely be an A/B or B kid if her life keeps the same basic trajectory. Any comments on the middle school/high school transition?
I don’t think anyone can comment specifically on grades, since schools differ in how they grade. But my guess is that unless your kid has significant maturity issues, it’s unlikely they will go up too much. Some kids do goof off in middle school and then get their act together later.
" I guess I’m wanting to know if it becomes a much steeper climb to maintain top grades as the years progress. Obviously, the material becomes harder, but does it become harder relative to the ability to master it at a given age?" Yes, in my experience, kids have to work a lot harder in a rigorous high school program than in middle school, particularly if the middle school is like ours and offers little to challenge the best students. And yes, time is a significant issue–some of the classes aren’t necessarily so hard but do require a lot of work. At our school, I think the freshman classes are somewhat harder than middle school and the difficulty ramps up a lot in sophomore year when most of our honors students take AP world history and are unprepared for how much work that is going to be. Goes up again for upperclassmen, because our school lacks an upperclass honors program and so the honors kids are taking quite a few APs.
I also think that unless a kid isn’t taking school seriously and some intervention might possibly avert big problems, that middle school parents really shouldn’t be obsessing about what their kids’ predicted grades or test scores might be in high school.
Thanks! I don’t think I’m obsessing, just wondering for somewhat practical time-management reasons now…because my daughter will already be amping up her academics this coming year with an algebra class with students who have been in a math club for two years (she didn’t join because of pre-pro ballet), a new foreign language and more class time in science and history. Wondering what the time management will be like so as to help her prioritize extracurricular decisions she is making NOW that will affect, and be affected by academics in the coming years…she/we are investing 15+ hours a week in ballet (with considerable travel to get there,) band and jazz band and wondering which/how much of these to cut out now… We did not get her so involved in these txtra-curriculars to be type-A or competitive, but because she liked and was good at these activities when she was young and the time-commitment was less…(she had no siblings or neighbor kids to play with and wanted to keep busy)…now all commitments have gotten more intense and I have been wondering how much more intense they will likely get, including academics, in order to to make the wisest decisions… because, as I said, she really has a moderate personality and I want her to be able to be balanced, not exhausted, and still have solid grades (not expecting tops) to pursue the college SHE prefers when the time comes.
Your best bet is to talk to older kids in doing your kid’s activities at the high school level. It depends entirely on expectations and how things are organized. Some ECs are actually a class, though they are called ECs. Others meet entirely outside of school, and are a far bigger out of school time commitment. There’s a lot of variability in how things are organized and in what the expectations are.
If she enjoys the activities and is managing them, why cut them now? If she can’t manage them then cut whatever she wants to cut. But I’m not sure how this relates to the difficulty of coursework she’ll be doing in a few years. If you are wondering whether it’s possible to do 15 hours per week of ballet while in high school, yes, it should be. Many of our hs sports require about that much time. It would be possible to do that while being in band and jazz band at our high school because those are classes at our school and the out of class time committment is mostly what the student wants to put into it–assuming they practiced hard enough in middle school to reach the level they would be accepted into the ensembles. Jazz band is extremely competitive at our school, regular band has several levels so everyone can participate. Now, if she wanted to do marching band and ballet–at our school, impossible. Marching band is also about 15 hours per week.
Hi Mathyone, Her ballet takes place more than an hour away (across a mountain range, no less) so all the older kids in it go to a different school system, and most do not have to add so much travel time to their lives. The twisty mountain road also makes doing homework in the car a recipe for car-sickness, and by high school the hours of dance would increase …more like 20+hours. There are no comparable dance options (quality-wise) in our small town. The local high school band, however, is excellent. My daughter is not intending to become either a professional dancer or musician, so it is best that she not jeopardize her grades to try the herculean task of accommodating both, with their conflicting schedules spanning late weeknights and weekends…and, yes, she is interested in marching band too. In all, I think she intrinsically enjoys dancing more than playing an instrument but enjoys the comradery of belonging to a school-based group of peers. So, what’s the problem?? It’s that, I guess she and I both know that the ballet must go and are both a little heartbroken about it…if the evidence is absolutely clear that she cannot manage it and high school academics well, it might be easier to make the cut now before investing any more time, money, gasoline, and emotion and transferring all that into her local music activities, study and friendships. (Serious ballet takes an enormous amount of focus and discipline and once a person has done that, it can be hard to accept the atmosphere of recreational dance.) She doesn’t want to quit anything yet but she has been tired and time-stressed and sleep-deprived too often in the past year already, so I have been trying to imagine the trajectory for high school should this level of activity continue and increase. I think she may have the intelligence and diligence to do it all, but not necessarily the temperament to be happy and healthy in the attempt. She does not have a type-A competitive personality (and neither do I… just an appreciation of a gentle pursuit of excellence! ) And most of all, I want her to be happy and balanced. So I wondered how the academic piece would likely ramp up in the coming years…and the difficulty of maintaining the level of grades she has now… thanks for your previous response… I just wondered about others’ experiences in the transition to high school and whether they found the work harder to master from year to year…