Advice for son who does not care about grades

marite
Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:03:12 +0000

bogibogi:

I agree with Dmd. Your son is not interested in certain areas of knowledge rather than lazy.
As well, individuals who are gifted in one area are not necessarily gifted in others. Just because he can perform well above grade level in math does not mean that he could do the same in the humanities and social studies, or even perform at grade level as easily. Try asking how many famous writers aced calculus; why should math whizzes ace literature?
Anyway, it’s great that he has a goal in mind, but he should broaden his idea of where he would like to study. There are schools with terrific math programs besides MIT. My S visited Princeton and was bowled over by seeing John Conway taking tea with undergraduates. He was shown around the places where A Beautiful Mind (about John Nash) was filmed. In the end, he decided not to apply because of the location (he is an urban kid). But Princeton, along with some other schools, is a terrific place for a math-lover. There are some colleges also that would love to have a quirky kid.