<p>My reaction to the “money’s worth” comment is that I don’t want my *kid *to be wasting the money by not doing the work.</p>
<p>Our regular schools have an online program that I do check during the regular school year, mostly because we’ve had issues in the past where teachers have forgotten to record assignments or haven’t put in grades. In the past I’ve checked once a week & if there seems to be a problem I tell my kids to follow up with the teacher. I won’t; it’s not my grade. They don’t mind; I don’t mind.</p>
<p>Now both my kids have done multi week residential academic programs. D2 did one this summer; the only thing that parents get offered is an end of course conference & a blog (that gets updated once a week.) It’s expensive, but I wouldn’t send my kids if they didn’t want to go so I expect that they are working to the best of their abilities. Since it’s not a graded course, and they get no credit, I can’t imagine what would be in Moodle. D1 did have a few girls in her class last year who were chatting & texting & had to be spoken to by the head of the program (which I thought was awful; if the parents are spending $xxxx for a program, I’d expect the kids to behave & WANT to be there) but that’s a different problem than performance. I’d think that’s a little over the top too Pizzagirl.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It ISN’T the school’s policy, as my kids have been taking classes in this particular program ever since, oh, the end of 6th grade or so, and the parent interaction has been (rightly, IMO) limited to – meet the prof on the first day of the class, meet him again on the last day for a parent-teacher conference, here’s a syllabus FYI so you know what your kid is doing, and here’s my e-mail in case you have any questions. It’s apparently this specific teacher’s policy / philosophy.</p>
<p>I have sometimes wish S’s highschool had something like this, so I could plan ahead- ie not plan weekend away for when major research paper is due on Monday. However, I’m sure I would have abused it. I have a major procrastinator who pulled several all nighters Jr year, so it would have come in handy. I had another S who just most likely wouldn’t do it. It’s bad enough I still wake him up for high school.</p>
<p>I think they need to learn how to manage their time. My S is currently at a college program for 6 credits. I wouldn’t dream of checking up on him. If he can’t make it there, he’s not going to be able to make it in college. I have just asked “how’s it going”, that’s it. The 6 credits are important however, and I am hoping he knows that. Wonder how he is getting up in the am?</p>
<p>Mine seems to be getting up all by himself, although his class doesn’t start until 9. Here he has to get up by 6:30 for HS, so I am curious if he will be able to wake up himself for senior year (he never has before).</p>