Hi all,
My 18 year old is failing. He has dealt with anxiety, depression, and learning disabilities all of his life. He has been in and out of therapy, and dips into suicidal thinking on a regular basis. He has been homeschooled except for a brief 18 months at a charter school, and he is currently enrolled in our local community college dual credit program as a homeschooler. He is failing 2 of his 3 classes this semester, and the only thing he is feeling is apathy. His medication and therapy are keeping him from suicide, but he has not been able to muster the motivation to complete his work for this semester. He will definitely be on academic probation after this semester.
He has already been held back a year. He is very smart and has great people skills. Despite his learning disabilities, he is actually able to execute quality work when he is mentally and emotionally stable. No one outside of our family realizes that he deals with these demons. He had been doing well with the Dual Credit program until the pandemic hit. Not being able to go in person has had serious implications for him. He also doesn't know what career he wants to pursue. Being directionless ends up feeding his anxiety, creating a vicious cycle.
I have been suggesting to him that perhaps he should take High School Equivalency courses at our community college next semester (and drop out of the dual credit program), and then take the GED and just be done with high school. At the pace he is going, his graduation date is getting pushed further and further back; he is further and further demoralized, and I just don't see a path forward for him through high school (home school, or school school).
We tried unschooling several years back, for about 18 months, and it plunged him into his first struggle with suicidal thoughts. He and I both know that he won't do anything I ask him to in a more traditional homeschool style either. He has no desire to attend the local high school or any other school, and frankly, he would be even farther behind if we enrolled him in a regular high school. He was planning on catching up and getting ahead somewhat by taking dual credit courses every summer, but he didn't accomplish that.
The plan forward, if he passes the GED, is for him to take a break from academics, get a job, pay us rent and living expenses, and put in volunteer hours. I would encourage him to menial job hop and to take courses at our community college that interest him (no more than one at a time), the idea being that he spends the next 2-3 years exploring the adult working world with the hope that by then, he'll have an idea what he wants to do (and therefore motivation), and we'll be past this pandemic, and he can return to community college full-time and then transfer to a university.
Is this a terrible plan? What are the cons?
Thanks for reading.