School. My son is Failing some subjects. Should I worry?

Originally posted by Pedro4077
I just can't see the problem with starting work at an early age if you're ready.

You can always go back and study at a later date.

edit on 4-9-2012 by Pedro4077 because: (no reason given)

Knowledge truly is power, he is to young himself to understand what may be useful and what may not be.

Even you as his father have a limited view on whats important, your experiences color your outlook on education. Your bias effects your opinion on what matters, just as we all do.

To any professional that took years of education to get where they are would see education as important, where others may not.

It all depends on what you view as success is.

It takes all kinds to make a society work, from plumbers (skill tradesmen) to scientist (highly educated) to those in the lowest levels such as food prep (mc jobs).

The truth is not everyone is made to do all the jobs, some will be good at some while sucking at others. There is no shame in admitting your limitations and strengths honestly and accepting them, its simply a matter of perspective.

What is success to some is torture to others.

With that being said, it is a shame to place these limitations on a child so early in life. He is already being placed into a box that he may regret later.

Teach him trades and he will be above a good majority of his peers, and if that makes him happy so be it.

Just understand later in life he may regret not having a father that pushed him to exceed his boundaries, or not having the will power to push his own boundaries.

Do you want a clone of yourself, or do you want a free thinking individual that can chose his path with full disclosure of what he is giving up by taking a similar path as you?

reply to post by Pedro4077


id he takes up a trade then some mathematical knowledge will be helpful to work out corner apex dimensions, and other physical attributes which need an accurate measurement. Tradespersons make good money in todays world. So mabey try a different teaching approach. Build something togther like a outdoor setting from raw materials and show him how maths can be applied to measurement cutting and alignments.

reply to post by Pedro4077


What year is he doing?

Does he want to go to university after school?

Two questions that can make this important and worth worrying about..

Originally posted by DarknStormy
reply to post by Pedro4077

 

What year is he doing?

Does he want to go to university after school?

Two questions that can make this important and worth worrying about..

He is year 9. You can leave school at 15 years of age here in Australia. He will be 15 in January.

Let's just say that he did get a trade. He could be fully qualified by 19/20 years of age, depending on the type of trade.

If he changed his job preference he could return to studies. It's common to see people in their 20s still studying. No?

reply to post by Pedro4077


I believe that if you intend to finish school, VCE etc, you intend to go to university to further your education. Thats where all that advanced stuff would come into play. I left school in year 10 because I had no intention of going to uni.. The stuff I was learning was never going to be a factor in my adult life.

I done the the same as your son is doing pretty much. The good thing is, you can get Uni courses very easy these days. All it takes is an online application and you are a uni student regardless of finishing school or not and there are endless short courses which can also help.

yes, your son would be better off learning to say "you want fries with that".

and if you're son wants to be a mule working for somebody that knows what an isosceles triangle is and studied the military tactics of ghengis khan, then he's on the right track.

Originally posted by DarknStormy
reply to post by Pedro4077

 

I believe that if you intend to finish school, VCE etc, you intend to go to university to further your education. Thats where all that advanced stuff would come into play. I left school in year 10 because I had no intention of going to uni.. The stuff I was learning was never going to be a factor in my adult life.

I done the the same as your son is doing pretty much. The good thing is, you can get Uni courses very easy these days. All it takes is an online application and you are a uni student regardless of finishing school or not.

edit on 5-9-2012 by DarknStormy because: (no reason given)

Good point. Some people here think that when you leave school, that's it - all over.

But there is always a chance to return to studies, no matter what your age.

Some people completely re-invent themselves through studies in their 30's or 40's.

reply to post by Pedro4077


I don't know about other countries, but here in Australia, there are endless courses to persue.

- RSA
- Forklift ticket
- Cert courses ( I'm about to start cert 3 in business) - I'm 30 yrs old
- First Aid

There are endless courses that can enhance your job prospects..

I started a Uni course 2 years ago but found it very tough to juggle with the work I was doing also.

I can relate, there were subjects i hated to learn in school, and many things i did learn that i have never needed again, but as far as the main question.

Yes, there should be no excuse for a failing grade. With my two, i dont expect A's all the time, they are nice, but i do not accept F's for any reason. If they get a F on a report card, they loose all their fun stuff till the next report card. No games No Net, No friends over basically no nothing.

So far this has only happend once. And suprise next report card he had all Bs and above.

There are many things we do in life that we dont like, for kids to learn things that bore them or that they
will never use, is in a way good training for later in life.

I teach youth life skills and employability skills who have dropped out. The goal being to go back to school or fins a job.

I tell my students, no you probably won't ever use what you learn in school. I tell them school is exercise for the mind. Millions of folks all over the world march off to gyms to lift weights, curling and pressing. Practically speaking you never have to lift dumb bells only when at the gym. Its actually pretty useless activity other than the fact that it builds muscle. School is no different for the mind.

Originally posted by Pedro4077
So I just had a talk with my son about his dismal school report card.

He seems disinterested, and cannot understand why he needs to know certain subjects. I can see his point.

Why would my son need to know how to work out the area of an isosceles triangle, scince I left school I have never needed to know the formula.

Why does he need to know that Ghangis kahn was born in Mongolia around 1155. He married at age 16, but had many wives during his lifetime. Will this information help him in a Job Interview?

Should he stess out over a science test where he must remember the law of gravitation equasion.

Much of the stuff he learns seems pointless. Once you learn the three R's what is the point of all the useless information.

Should School take on a different approach? It's not the 1950's anymore.

edit on 4-9-2012 by Pedro4077 because: (no reason given)

I don't want to offend you here but I probably will. Your attitude to education as a parent is probably not helping him if he knows you're in agreement. No part of education is useless.

Knowing how to work out the area of a triangle is useful if you are an architect or an engineer for example. Should schools not teach this because your son doesn't want to follow this career path?

Knowing the history of Genghis Khan may not be of interest to your son but one day, somebody in his class may become a historian because they were inspired by a story about a man who founded the largest empire in history that they once learnt in school.

Understanding physics may not be of interest to your son but what about the girl in his class who will go on to become the astrophysicist who is responsible for revolutionising everything we know?

Every career has different educational needs and to prepare children as they grow up and decide where they want to go in life, they need to be exposed to a wide range of curricular subjects. Maybe if you help your son to understand this, he will think more about the future and why these boring subjects may one day be of some value, even if it is not himself that directly benefits.

Wow, the more you know about subjects that are being taught in school, the more you are in control of your destiny. Knowledge is power, no matter what it is. I have had times where I have had to draw upon a random subject for a conversation or a life decision, or to understand the world around me better and make good decisions.

History and geography are especially important, as these are subjects that help you understand the world and your place in it.

The bottom line is, if your son wants to live a life where he has little control over his destiny, go for it. Because getting bad grades in high school will only mean that it will get worse as life goes on.

Another thing to note - after he is done in high school, he might prefer going to trade school. There is nothing wrong with that, in fact, the jobs are easier to find!

You should stop making excuses for your child and feeding into the BS that they don't need to know certain things in life. At his/her age they have no idea what subjects will be useful in their career or life and fueling the excuses is not the answer. I agree not all subjects you learn in school will be useful in everyday life but allowing your child to fall behind due to lack of motivation is setting them up to fail in life in the future by teaching them that it is ok to do what you want when you want as long as it pleases you.

Memorization and repetition, the methods our school systems have adopted for teaching, are extremely flawed. What good is memorizing something for a test and forgetting about it immediately afterward? No learning or developing is taking place, school becomes a drag. Children should pursue the topics they are interested in; they should not be given tests. Reading and discussion are the best methods for actually teaching something.

Originally posted by Pedro4077
So I just had a talk with my son about his dismal school report card.

He seems disinterested, and cannot understand why he needs to know certain subjects. I can see his point.

Why would my son need to know how to work out the area of an isosceles triangle, scince I left school I have never needed to know the formula.

Why does he need to know that Ghangis kahn was born in Mongolia around 1155. He married at age 16, but had many wives during his lifetime. Will this information help him in a Job Interview?

Should he stess out over a science test where he must remember the law of gravitation equasion.

Much of the stuff he learns seems pointless. Once you learn the three R's what is the point of all the useless information.

Should School take on a different approach? It's not the 1950's anymore.

edit on 4-9-2012 by Pedro4077 because: (no reason given)

What schools teach using books is unnecessary what it does teach him is how to act like other children(which is bad) and how to follow the same footsteps that have led us to this # hole were in. I would homeschool him and like soeone posted teach him critical thinking and common sense, something that alot of children are lacking. School slows the learning process down. I was raised by a single mom so I had to be independent at a very very young age, I was so mature at ym age in elementary school that I didnt even do the work and skipped classes and they had to pass me, but the funny thing is that when I did decide to actually show up and work I would be able to compete with the "smartest" kids in the class.. You cant learn everything from a book. You can learn from the most random things and I definitely was a gamer which taught me ALOT more critical thinking as a kid I would sit infront of the tv and play super mario bros which would make u think how to beat the levels. sure you might say games are a waste of time but its really not i actually think that a smart move to gaming education would make kids so much smarter because they would be having fun while learning.
p.s. I know how to capitolize and use apostrophes I just choose not to sometimes

You might think those things are useless because it looks like you already determined what is his future career.

I use to think some math i did in class were useless, even the prof said it was useless.. but was he wrong, when i got into research field in my career, thats when these "useless" things started to make sense.

There r useless things, like certain history... and if the person is not going into any history field, but nothing in Math and Science is ever useless. They will help in some way.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by Pedro4077

 

Instead of worrying about curriculum issues right now, my honest advice is to sit down with your child and have a good, calm, "person to person" heart to heart talk to find out if there are underlying issues. If you are seen as the disciplinarian in the family - then maybe having a trusted relative or family friend do it is a better idea.

A sudden drop in grades could be a red flag for many things... depression, social difficulties, self-doubt, behavior issues, etc. Often puberty is to blame. And this can be an opportunity to address some deeper issues - before worrying about school based ones.

~Heff

This is what I want to say as well, along with....

Ask him every single day how his day was and make him elaborate.

Be involved in his school work and see if there is any way you can help even if you have to make a phone call to someone who can help.

Let him know that although it may seem hard, he can do it!!! :-)

In my state/ county we have access to our children's work, test scores and homework via online. Only this year have they implemented such a program and I LOVE IT! I can check daily for a drop in grades or see how well they did on a test. If they forget their work we can check online.... I just love it.

My daughter has a hard time in math so I've asked her to be a "professional note taker" and continue to drive that into her head. This way her notes can be something to fall back on when she is having trouble remembering how to solve a problem.

Be creative!

Good luck! Xoxox

Jenn

I was VERY fortunate when my mom taught the kids to read at 3 & 4. They LOVE to read.

If your kid can read well-they can do EVERYTHING.

I have never been fond of public school. Here in the States, it's like a machine with no brain. Just move them along.

My strong points in life are science and literature. I made it a point to teach them what I knew, or teach them a little something called --THINKING FOR YOURSELF!!!!

Find their strong point. Use it to THEIR advantage. Don't let the school measure your kid. It's YOUR kid, YOU teach him.

I sgned my kid out of school one day, I wanted to run around with her and do fun stuff. There was a geek thing at the museum, and she wanted to buy a few things at the mall. She was 16, and watching your kid at the mall is very educational and insightful as a parent (how they want to spend their money, interact with other people, etc.)

So, I sign my kid out, and the school secretary asks me where we are going. I tell her, I am excited about the aspect of spending the long overdue day with my baby girl. Secretary-Lady says to me "This is an unexcused absence."

I was floored.

"It's MY kid. I don't give a sh*t what you think." was the last thing I ever said to that woman.

reply to post by Pedro4077


You shouldn't be worried about his report cards because they are only the opinion of the teacher giving him the grade.

On the other hand, many great founders and CEOs of big companies didn't finish or even go to school.



I believe the BEST education is SELF-EDUCATION.

It's all fun and games until you get your ass handed to you in Trivia Pursuit all because you don't have that common knowledge. Unfortunately I agree with "why do we need to know this" but the fact of the matter is you do. If you want to have a higher chance of success then I suggest your son start to be more focused.