<p>I took D (rising senior) to a summer program today. This is a fairly typical sumner program, 3 week residential, blah blah. She did this program a few years back and her twin has done it for several years as well.</p>
<p>Anyway, we arrived to the classroom early for the meet the prof thing. I consider my role to sit back and be largely invisible aside from signing up for a time slot for the end of season conference. So I was a little surprised when the prof asked me to sign up for something called a moogle(?) account so I could log on and follow her progress and track her assignments and grades daily. I said that unless there was some reason I had to be involved, I saw this as between her and the prof and I'm not interested in tracking her grades or assignments. (I don't during the school year; I theoretically could, but I've deliberately not set up a password for the school grade tracking. I find out her grades when the report card comes.) I don't care what she gets in the class anyway as long as she enjoys it, which is the only reason to do it IMO. (she gets no school credit) </p>
<p>The class is half rising srs and half rising jrs. I totally get such tracking if we were talking younger grades, but it seemed odd to me at this stage in the game and I wondered what other parents thought.</p>
<p>As a student, I think it’s kinda weird/intrusive, but then again, my parents never really took an active interest in how I performed. Nor did I want them too, for that matter.</p>
<p>From my perspective, it’s somewhat of a trust issue…If the parents trust their kids to not only go to class and do well, but also to seek any outside help if they need any, the parents won’t feel the need check up on their students progress. But if the parents don’t trust their kids, they’ll check up on their progress. Then again, the parents could see this program as a trial period for what it will be like when the kids leave the nest, in which if student does well, the parents will feel more confident/less worrisome about letting their kids to go off to college.</p>
<p>As a 16/17/18 year old, I wouldn’t have wanted my parents tracking my progress. I’d hope that they trusted me enough and had enough confidence in me not to feel the need to, essentially, be helicopter parents.</p>
The high schools around here, including ours, use packages that allow students and parents to log in and check the status of assignments and tests. (I don’t check - sounds like helicoptering or micro managing.) </p>
<p>Colleges often use Blackboard or some similar program (sounds like Moogle is one of these) to let students log in and check the status of their own assignments and tests. I think that the prof was telling you that since your kid is under 18, you can get a password to her account. I agree - why would you want to? :)</p>
<p>Yeah - our school has Blackboard, and I at least get offering it in a public school context – after all, there will be kids who really do need a parent to sit on them. I just thought it was weird in a summer enrichment course where presumably the students were highly motivated in the first place.</p>
<p>It’s “Moodle,” Pizzagirl. My kid’s school replaced Blackboard with Moodle last year because it’s a bit faster and easier to use ( I think cheaper, too). It is odd that the professor is motivated to set up the accounts for a summer session, but what’s the harm in checking in to see what they’re doing in the class?</p>
<p>There are probably a number of parents who figure that the program is costing them a considerable chunk of change and they want to make sure they’re getting their money’s worth.</p>
<p>Perhaps they are insisting their child attend because they think it will help in college admissions.</p>
<p>But I am with you - I wouldn’t even send a child if the child weren’t eager to attend, in which case tracking progress would be intrusive as well as totally unnecessary.</p>
<p>My thoughts exactly…and if this is a college course or courses, then those grades will be used in college admissions, right? Since the parent is paying, the parent should have the right to see the grades (especially if the student is a minor).</p>
<p>Ah Pizza it shouldn’t surprise you. Those parents that hover, want to know, monitor and keep track of their kids schoolwork are everywhere. The prof probably got tired of e-mails and phone calls from parents checking up on their kiddos and decided it was much easier to give them a tool.</p>
<p>I don’t see a problem with parents being able to track grades, assignments, etc. It is a high school program that parents are paying for. It makes sense for some parents to want to know about their kid’s progress.</p>
<p>While the OP is fortunate to have a kid who does fine academically without a lot of parental hovering and prodding, there are parents with kids – including very smart kids – who would do next to nothing unless their parents stayed on their backs. High school is too important a time for parents of such kids to simply stand back and let the kids flunk.</p>
<p>Particularly with some males it takes a while for maturity and responsibility to kick in, and I think that’s relate to brain development. I don’t think it’s due to hovering parents. I think parents of such kids hover because that’s the only way their kids will stay anywhere near on track.</p>
<p>Saying this as a parent who has BTDT and is very delighted that after a gap year following high school, younger son matured and excelled in college with no parental hovering.</p>
<p>Agree with NSM. Some kids don’t need parents keeping tabs on grades, and of course the goal is to get to that point before college. But some hs kids don’t manage this well on their own. I can’t count the number of friends/family members who have found out when the report card arrives that the kid hasn’t been doing homework, or hasn’t grasped the subject matter, or hasn’t shown up for several classes. Yes, parents can assign some consequences at that point, but it would have been easier to address the situation after a week of blown-off homework instead of a semester of it.</p>
<p>I never signed up for on-line access to my kids’ grades either, because I could see that my kids were putting in a reasonable effort for satisfactory results (which I’d consider a B, though happily they often did better :)). I’d have wanted the option, though, in case they suddenly seemed to have a lot of free time for socializing or the internet.</p>
<p>I had the two different kids but really stopped keeping track of assignments for distracted S after middle school figuring he had to do it himself…ironically, right through to senior year some (but only some) teachers would email me that he was missing big assignments, etc. and ask me to check on his progress. Other teachers never contacted me and let him get Cs and Ds due to missing or late assignments. I think the ones that asked for my help in keeping him on tract recognized that it was not laziness but poor organization and focus bordering on ADD and these teachers wanted him to succeed. I would pass on the information to S and sometimes forward emails and that usually was enough to get him back on track. I sometimes should have been more proactive but he survived and, hopefully, is somewhat better prepared for life on his own but I see some big hurdles in college when he will have less supportive and understanding professors. </p>
<p>My D is very very good about completing work and earns straight As but she has procrastinated occasionally leading to major panic and unpleasant eveings before large assignments are due…including all nighters. I actually find this more distressing than the absentminded and careless kid with the erratic GPA. He, at least, never put us through much drama about late and missing assignments. I actually nag her more than son to get things done early and even refused to let her finish an assignment after 11pm on a Sunday and made her get a low grade because I knew she had known about the assignment all weekend but had chosen to spend most of it with friends. But check on grades using blackboard or somethng else…never have I been tempted to do this.</p>
<p>I say this professor is probably covering his butt so come the end of the term he doesn’t have a lot of parents all over him for why little suzie didn’t get a better grade, etc and can readily see why they bombed the class. Makes his life easier on the back end I suspect.</p>
<p>My kids have moodle at their school, but I have no idea if they can see their daily grades like that. Like others, I just look at the report card at the end and the teacher comments as they come with them.</p>
<p>Our Jr. High and High schools use Moodle or EdLine to facilitate communications between teachers and students (where they post syllabus, assignments, grades, etc.), and for parents to be able to keep abreast of their student’s efforts/results, if they feel the need or desire. </p>
<p>I think it’s a great tool in general …but I do find it strange that this professor is encouraging you to use it to track your child’s progress in a voluntary elective?</p>
<p>No, this is a residential summer program for hs students held at a nearby university. The grades might be self-reported on an application, but that’s it.</p>
<p>I fear that I wasn’t clear. I get what these programs are at the regular high school level, and my school has Blackboard. I was surprised by it for a SUMMER ENRICHMENT program geared towards rising hs seniors.</p>
<p>I’m with those who say the prof. is doing it for those who would otherwise be calling or emailing with questions about what/how their kids are doing. The school prob. decided to set this system up for those who want all they info. they can get.</p>
<p>I agree about the summer program; my S is at a 6 week course and I am not interested in checking up on him there. He is there because the program interested him and I wanted him to get a taste of independent college life. The grade doesn’t matter to me.</p>
<p>I do regularly check during the school year to see how he is doing, unlike my D’s who would come home and say “I got a __ on my test”, I get no feedback from him.</p>
<p>I confess to monitoring Edline during the school year–for one kid, it was mainly to see if he was turning in his homework; for the other, I was more interested in anomalous grading by some of the teachers. Neither seemed to find it too intrusive. I can’t see doing it for a summer program, though, unless *maybe *the program was for high school credit.</p>
<p>Ds2 also is currently at a residential summer program, and I would have no interest in tracking his grades. Yes, he gets college credit, and, yes, he could report it for colleges purposes, but that seems over the top.</p>
<p>Also, I’m sure poster didn’t mean it this way, but I bristled at the remark about parents wanting “to make sure they’re getting their money’s worth.” I assume no one believes in paying for an A. ;)</p>