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Somewhat brag alert but also a question


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Okay, I couldn't wait, so I called for the AP score. Dd got a 5 in Human Geography. I'm thrilled, but amazed also.

 

I'd like advice on what to preach at her--here's the situation. She's in 8th grade equivalent. She heard Jared Diamond (Guns Germs and Steel) speak last year and got really interested in these issues, ergo, decided to attempt AP Human Geo. I bought all 3 suggested textbooks, made out a schedule and told her she would need to write one mini essay every week. She kept assuring me that she was working on it but that it was too early to write the FRQs. At the beginning of March I finally insisted on seeing what had been done. Virtually nothing--she'd read 3 chapters in one book. Had a huge blow up. Lots of tearful promises. She dropped all but one of the books, and read the entire book in the next six weeks. Made a 6 inch stack of flashcards. Took all the practice tests in the prep book. About 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 2 months--so she probably actually did put in a full load of hours, but in the most tense manner possible.

 

I was sincerely hoping that she'd get a 4 so I could make a point about working consistently, not leaving things for the last minute, being independently responsible, not depending on me to police things, etc. This kid's crisis mode style drives me nuts. Any advice, comments, counter opinions that might help me think this through? (She's at camp right now).

Danielle

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Oh, goodness, I was that child!! Fix her now! I had the same style, and it ALWAYS worked out for me - winning state science fairs on a little work at the last, 1st place at state in 4-H for a project I did the week before, etc., etc. I really, really wish now that my parents had thought about the habits that were forming. I'm not sure what you can do, but definitely do something! :) It has been hard as an adult with this horrible habit of procrastinating and expecting the best anyway. It started to catch up with me in college, and it was downhill from there...

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Oh, goodness, I was that child!!

 

Same here. I have wondered (armchair psychology) whether there's an element of "fear of success" (NOT the "fear of failure" you hear about more often) -- that is, I feel as though I ALWAYS want to procrastinate, so that I have a ready-made excuse should I NOT do well ("I didn't really study all that much," or, "I didn't start writing it until the night before," or, "If I'd practiced more, I would have played well"). Ugh. And then, when you do well, it's too easy to become prideful about performance. Double-ugh!

 

What do you think?

 

I can't even think of a time when I started and completed a project long before it was due. I jokingly call myself a "depth fish," after those fish that live very deep in the ocean. When they are caught (that is, in a net, accidentally) and brought to the surface, they explode. So maybe OP's dd needs that element of pressure to do well.

 

(Hmm, maybe THAT'S the avatar I need to find! Some bottom-dwelling depth fish!)

 

At any rate, big congratulations on the 5!

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I was, and still am, like that.

I flew through my engineering studies with the same method too! No one ever attempted to correct my habits because I brought in good results almost all the time.

 

And now in my 40's, I can see that the world does need people like this. People who work well in a crisis. When I worked I was hopeless when I had to plan ahead for the next project (6 months to a year in advance!) Argh! I hated that and I wasn't good. However, when a client called with an urgent problem to be fixed asap or they would sue, the 'planners' couldn't do it. They were unable to fix stuff under pressure while I could step in and 'saved the day'. And it happened many times that I had to work in areas that weren't 'mine' - software industry with a team of almost 60 programmers on the same product. Big code base! People like me were called 'firefighters'. Companies love 'em! You can throw anything at these people and they'll do it, while respecting the deadlines. Companies also need 'planners' but in a crisis they'll turn to the firefighters.

 

These days, I teach Catechism. Again I can't plan my lessons. I apologised many times to my assistant teachers, because I would show up on the morning of the lessons with minimal preparation, and they had difficulties following me. However, they still enjoyed themselves. Because I'm a crazy teacher, the kids can throw any idea at me and I'll turn it into a little skit, or a game. Thankfully, my assistants - with the exception of one - were able to go with the flow. And they're coming back too next year! Not only that but other assistants are asking to be moved to my group.

 

There's definitely a lot of positive from being a 'crisis person'. With time, one learns exactly what kind of planning one needs, and it does work itself out in the end.

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I too am like that... it bit me in the bum a few times... Mostly because I never really learned to truly study something that I wanted to know. When I decided to pursue my Masters of Herbology and become a Master Herbalist, I had to buckle down and do bit by bit because the work load was gigantic. I still did a bit of this though in that I turned in assignments for 10 of my classes (out of 24) within 3 months. Some of them I actually had done earlier but I had to mail everything in so I waited until I had several to mail.

 

Anyway, after a mad dash to finish my assignments, I had 2 months to memorize my 100 herbs with latin names, parts used, 1 specific use (I know lots of uses for most of them but I had to know THE specific one on the list) and what did I do? Wait until I was in the airport ON MY WAY to my final seminar, a week before the test that would be given on the information, to make up my flash cards.

 

Some of us never quite change even if we want to a little...

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