Advice for son who does not care about grades

CountingDown
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:52:08 +0000

Now if your S took IB English, he’d be swamped committing “crimes against literature,” as S2 puts it! They dissect and analyze far more than those authors ever intended… S2’s 9th grade pre-IB English class was tougher than S1’s AP Lang/Comp, and they had much the same reading list. (They had those classes the same year so the comparison was abundantly clear.)

What got S1 hooked on history and social sciences was the news. He is a newspaper junkie and reading articles there got him interested in the historical background behind the headlines. History Channel is also a great way to expand one’s horizons.

Our kids hardly ever had grammar quizzes or vocab in HS.

bogibogi, there are definitely maturity issues that come along with reading some of these classics. I’ve read several of the books my kids have studied and found that many times, they didn’t get the cultural or historical references/allusions/satires, even if they are relatively well-read kids. (S1 has always been a ravenous reader, but not so tuned into those subtexts. S2 gets the historical stuff and has had IB pounded into his head, so he finds it somewhat easier.)

We found that if S1 took AP/IB classes in social sciences/humanities, the grades were a lot better than in a regular or honors course. More discussion, more motivated kids, etc.