<p>am i the only one whose S is an academic underachiever in here??</p>
<p>No way! I have a classic underachiever-waving hand wildly! He’s a really nice kid. Nice, easy to be around, lots of friends. Your typical teenage boy, poker playing, video gamer, sleeps till noon. Not a competive bone in his body. </p>
<p>I was the one who started the “How am I going to send this boy away to college” thread. We are looking at schools and he has narrowed his options at what he can look at by his grades in HS. I keep hoping for major maturing before this one goes to school. Going away to college is a major investment, esp. when you know you have to pay full freight. I really don’t want to see it going down the toilet because my S can’t get his act together.</p>
<p>It’s funny, I don’t have the typical CC kid here but I keep coming back. Nice people here with great advice. I also notice that while many of the poster’s have your high achiever they also have a classic underachiever. That’s parenting for you.</p>
<p>cheers - great story and good point! my S is a fantastic debater - only because he’s had to explain and talk teachers into giving him another chance like every quarter! he waits till the last minute to do everything, and then when it seems too late to do anything, he goes into the “bs” mode and somehow pulls it out - not As or Bs mind you. yet, he insists on being in all AP classes. i’m sure this debating quality and the ability to make people see things your way, will be plenty helpful in life. S also has very high iq. he is DEFINITELY the classic underachiever - but only in school and with school work. he is extremely motivated by his passion, film making, and is contantly writing scripts and making films.</p>
<p>deb, yes, my S, like your D is very comfortable with average - so opposite my husband and me, who were “A” machines. it’s like he can never do any more than a B, he’s trained us to think of Bs as As, matter of fact. we woop it up when he gets a B!!! he’s had to take a summer school in math already - had a D then in summer school easily made the A, but it had to be a do or die situation with him. the minute he has a B, he stops trying! and he never really even tried to begin with. he’s not in a chi chi private school (having been kicked out of one in middle school - nothing bad but to this private school it was - class clown in overdrive) so his AP courses are not as challenging.</p>