Donna Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Ds is in 11th grade at the local ps. He was home schooled until 8th then wanted to go to ps to play sports (and because his older brother was there playing sports). He went into ps loving math, thinking he was good at it, and made decent grades in 8th (A's and B's). The high school does a block schedule where they do 4 classes the 1st half of the year and 4 different classes the 2nd. (This would have been heaven for me. I learned quickly and was usually bored in school.) But ds learns differently and he is struggling with the pace and teaching style let alone the fact that he has subjects like Spanish and math only 4 months out of every year. He is in pre-calculus now and to fit a year's worth of math in four months, they will often learn a concept one day and take a quiz on it the next. It seems they have quizzes every couple days and he feels like he never has enough time for the concept to sink in before the teacher is two more concepts ahead. His attitude towards school (and himself) has steadily declined this year. He says he is "stupid" often. I have been working with him, he has missed lunch every day to get extra help from the teacher, but I think he is feeling more and more upset with himself and the situation and it is becoming a vicious cycle. I want to pull him out now and restart Precalculus with him because he can learn it just not they way they teach it and at the pace they are going. I don't want him to stuff in information for the next quiz/test. I want him to really know and understand the concepts so he can apply them to the next level. So, if you have made it this far…what would be the pros and cons of doing this? Should we keep plugging at it and get his grade up some then pull him when the next term begins and re-do precalculus? Will there be a problem with going on to college if his plans are community college for prerequisites first? (Will having a poor grade then pulling out of school in the middle of the term affect him going to community college or will his SAT scores or placement testing there be all they look at?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 If you pull him out mid-term, I would not include the partial grades from this semester at the public school on his transcript. I would include the grades from the first two years (indicating these were done at XYZ High School), then show the grades he earns at home with you for 11th and 12th grades. I have had two kids pull out of public school to home school for their senior years and it did not impact their applications to colleges at all. Both kids had specific things they wanted to concentrating on their senior year (music and computers) that were not available thru the public school and so their applications actually looked better because they were able to excel in their areas of interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 I can't see that any grades for a few months of a year count for anything unless you are planning on him going back for 12th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle_NC Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 What does your son want to do? If it were me, I would present the options you are ok with and let him make the final decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elisabet1 Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Ds is in 11th grade at the local ps. He was home schooled until 8th then wanted to go to ps to play sports (and because his older brother was there playing sports). He went into ps loving math, thinking he was good at it, and made decent grades in 8th (A's and B's). The high school does a block schedule where they do 4 classes the 1st half of the year and 4 different classes the 2nd. (This would have been heaven for me. I learned quickly and was usually bored in school.) But ds learns differently and he is struggling with the pace and teaching style let alone the fact that he has subjects like Spanish and math only 4 months out of every year. He is in pre-calculus now and to fit a year's worth of math in four months, they will often learn a concept one day and take a quiz on it the next. It seems they have quizzes every couple days and he feels like he never has enough time for the concept to sink in before the teacher is two more concepts ahead. His attitude towards school (and himself) has steadily declined this year. He says he is "stupid" often. I have been working with him, he has missed lunch every day to get extra help from the teacher, but I think he is feeling more and more upset with himself and the situation and it is becoming a vicious cycle. I want to pull him out now and restart Precalculus with him because he can learn it just not they way they teach it and at the pace they are going. I don't want him to stuff in information for the next quiz/test. I want him to really know and understand the concepts so he can apply them to the next level. So, if you have made it this far…what would be the pros and cons of doing this? Should we keep plugging at it and get his grade up some then pull him when the next term begins and re-do precalculus? Will there be a problem with going on to college if his plans are community college for prerequisites first? (Will having a poor grade then pulling out of school in the middle of the term affect him going to community college or will his SAT scores or placement testing there be all they look at?) Our schools had that block system, but the teachers were rotten at teaching the math and the science. Until AP science, it was a gross negligence in teaching. The math was awful! I will never send my children to public high school again over this issue alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna Posted November 9, 2014 Author Share Posted November 9, 2014 What does your son want to do? If it were me, I would present the options you are ok with and let him make the final decision. I have been offering to bring him home for the past 2 years but until this year, he wanted to stay in school. Now he is begging me to bring him home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna Posted November 9, 2014 Author Share Posted November 9, 2014 Our schools had that block system, but the teachers were rotten at teaching the math and the science. Until AP science, it was a gross negligence in teaching. The math was awful! I will never send my children to public high school again over this issue alone. I also think part of his issue is poor teaching. I spent my evenings with my oldest ds re-teaching math with the same teacher and my oldest had the highest scores in his class in math until he got that teacher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 I have been offering to bring him home for the past 2 years but until this year, he wanted to stay in school. Now he is begging me to bring him home. Bring him home then. Like a pp, I was going to ask what he wanted. I pulled mine from ps when our school switched to CPM math and we were on block scheduling. MOST kids have difficulty with the math to be honest and we don't even go at a quick pace (we just cut a good part of the material - not a great solution in itself). The two of mine who homeschooled high school have a far more solid education than the one who wanted to (and did) return to high school. I was in a pre-calc class on Friday supervising a team test and not a single member of the team (3) could tell me how to reduce x/x^2. They were actually supposed to reduce sin(x)/sin^2(x) and I THOUGHT I was giving them an obvious hint (sigh). Hints are SUPPOSED to happen on tests. Without them, it's doubtful any would get good grades. I hate doing it, but it's the system I work in. For the nuts and bolts, I agree that I wouldn't use any of the school's grades for your transcript. I'd use your own and just call these two years homeschooled years. It should not be a problem for colleges at all (even 4 year schools) if he has competitive SAT/ACT scores and/or subject tests. For community college (here) he wouldn't even need those. He'd just need his diploma (you issue) and take placement tests for his math and English. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 Do you have charter schools or virtual charters available for free? Worth looking into if they have standard scheduling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariaT Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 A friend of mine pulled her son from ps in the middle of Jr year when he started failing all his classes, and plunged into a deep depression. She pulled him before any grades were posted for the first semester. They switched to a part-time status so he could participate in orchestra and the Lego Robotics team. He may have done another class there, I'm not sure of the exact details. He did everything else at home, with some AP classes at our coop. He ended up at Case Western. Depression is a real thing. I don't see any down sides to pulling him from a toxic situation. Maria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 Thank you all for your support and suggestions. I feel much better about our decision now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.