<p>No doubt there are certain things that need to be done at the end of the marking period. Midterms, finals, maybe even a project that will summarize and synthesize the material just covered that quarter. But the high school marking period end dates are set from even before the beginning of the academic year, so there’s no element of surprise involved with regard to pedagogical planning and scheduling of assignments. Therefore, I fail to understand how experienced teachers, who should understand and care about students, can justify pulling this cramming routine each year. In addition to large quantities of regular work that must be completed NOW before the term ends, there are those tests and papers that must be assigned because the teacher realizes s/he doesn’t have enough grades in the book, or because s/he sees that the grades s/he does have are not high enough and s/he needs to give the students another large assignment so the kids have a chance to pull up their grades. Then there are those extra-credit assignments (“the only one I’m giving”) which there’s no way D could possibly complete this weekend but could have used.</p>
<p>D’s teachers have all piled on huge assignments very recently. One is a term paper on a complicated topic, for which the students were given just a week and a half. (the teacher meant to give them more time, but lost their topic selection sheets, took a few days to try to find the sheets, never did, then there was a sub, etc.) The majority of these assignments were given this past Thurs. or Fri. and were due yesterday (Mon.) or today. D hasn’t slept more than a few hours the past two nights and is getting sick. I’d be the first to admit it if she had been procrastinating, but that’s not the case here. And she had been keeping up with all her work, so it’s not like she suddenly had to catch up on the material on top of everything else. Surely this scenario can and should be avoided for the health and well-being of our kids.</p>
<p>Practice selective neglect. Really, in life not everything can get done in crunch periods. My DS1 has it down to an art; the DS2 is learning. </p>
<p>We all do it to one degree or another when under stress: we do not read every page assigned, or forego the extra letter or extra phone call. Can DS choose assignments to leave undone? Can she catch up on reading after the crunch has passed?</p>
<p>It’s not really fair that professors pile on so much work at one time because they’re poorly organized. However, I am a college professor, and if it’s any consolation to you, it’s worse to have to grade all these papers than write them (having done both) so the profs are suffering too.</p>
Can I steal that and say it’s mine? LOL. That’s where my D is this semester. She went grocery shopping while hungry and she’s having trouble carrying all the bags. </p>
<p>She has 2 upper level Bio’s, Physics, and Organic Chemistry , with Independent Study Research in Bio (Genetics). Couple that with a full set of EC’s and for the very first time in her life she has had to triage. “Well I can drop one quiz in this class so I won’t study so I can continue cramming on this major test over here.” </p>
<p>This is happening with some regularity. I recognize that it is a lifetime skill that will serve her well in med school and beyond but it is somewhat painful to hear about in real time. But she’s doing fine. Had to happen someday. Maybe she’ll remember to eat before shopping next time.</p>
<p>I assume this is high school, not college. Another advantage I saw in my kids’ private (boarding) schools. That kind of thing didn’t happen. There was plenty of work, but more communication between teachers and departments and not a lot of unnecessary busy work.</p>
<p>GFG’s D is also a cross country runner, and this weekend was state sectionals. Some of those teams have mandatory pasta party/team meetings & all kinds of nonsense that cuts into the academics. I once had to call the athletic director to get D excused from riding on the team bus home. The meet was ten minutes from our house, and I went as a spectator. The AD expected D to ride back to the school on the team bus (45 minutes away) with me following the bus & then turn around and go back home (another 45 minute drive, if there was no traffic.) This would have turned a ten minute commute into an hour and a half. Sometimes the team spirit/bonding stuff is just plain silly. </p>
<p>It can be very tough to juggle all the last minute stuff, especially that term paper mess! </p>
<p>D’s school has a no extra credit policy – no exceptions. Every bit of work counts from the first day of the marking period, with no opportunities to salvage a bad start. Sometimes the girls would KILL for the opportunity to do some extra work to bump up a grade.</p>
<p>I also am getting that this is a high school problem for the OP. We’ve had that happen in high school, but I don’t remember any surprises like that in college. However, things still pile up sometimes, even when you know what is coming and can try to plan for it. You can’t always avoid having too much to do, as in Cur’s D’s case above. “Selective Neglect” – useful skill. A more apt description than “prioritizing” in cases like this.</p>
<p>We are experiencing, I think, what MOWC refers to above, this year for the first time. My high school freshman is attending a private high school where there is a great deal of thought and care put into every aspect of the academic experience – different from my other kids’ high school experiences (one went to a disorganized public, and two to a highly regarded Catholic school). The way the school is run, it is more like college than the high schools I’ve had experience with before. I still expect there will be times when things will be just too busy and overwhelming, but I doubt if it will be a surprise!</p>
<p>curm, my sympathies. as another parent of a pre-med student, i’m somewhat shocked by the pressure these kids are under as mere sophomores. i wonder why this is necessary – and whether it doesn’t turn off many young people who’d make excellent doctors. With her time-intensive science courses my D has no time for any “fun” or “enrichment” classes. <em>parental whine alert</em> isn’t college also supposed to be fun?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, or fortunately perhaps, after all, who wants their brain surgeon to be the guy who made a C??? Unfortunately, if this kind of pressure is not in some way stimulating or “fun” to the person, then they may not belong in medicine as a doctor. Curmudgeon has the right of it, prioritizing, scheduling, maybe planning better next time, triaging, that is a basic survival skill for the rest of their lives - helps combat the perfectionism and anal retentiveness that can actually be detrimental to the med student’s mental health.</p>
<p>And, yes, Katlia, most doctors I know regret all those science classes, and wish they had taken more history or literature or psychology - it is just hard to get it to work out that way AND finish in 4 years.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon’s D took on more science courses than any med school would require. It’s her love, and she “shopped while she was hungry.” Kids with philosphy and music degrees are admitted to med schools as long as the basic science requirements are met. She’s a bright girl who will no doubt adjust her scheduling for next semester if it proves to be too taxing. For some, science courses are less challenging than heavy duty writing & literary analysis courses. At D’s h.s., the AP Art History course is legendary for being the course that kills even the top students. All the AP sciences & organic chem pale in comparison.</p>
<p>TheGFG, something that has bothered me from the moment my kids started junior high is the absence of a syllabus. I see no reason high school teachers cannot learn to organize the semester ahead of time; the school year schedule is set two years before the school year starts. A published list of topics, chapters covered, due dates for papers, exams, quizzes and major assignments, details about the grading structure (what counts for what) is perfectly feasible and would go a long way toward keeping the classes moving at a steady pace. I just think this aspect of teaching is neglected in ed school courses, and I have to conclude that use of syllabi is not common in ed. school courses, either, or more teachers would know how to use them.</p>
<p>The very demanding AP history classes my kids took in 10th and 11th grade had a syllabus as described above. My kids, along with most of the others taking those classes, were busy with time-consuming ECs. The students were able to do the readings when they had the time, as they knew the assignment schedule for the entire year.</p>
<p>:) Oh, I know curm’s D is talented and motivated and her tough schedule is in part her own choice. I sympathized with him because, as a parent, it’s hard to see your child so swamped at the ripe age of maybe 19, with no end in sight for years. </p>
<p>FWIW, my behavioral neuroscience D has no time for “fun” courses (she wanted to take conversational Spanish to keep up her near-fluency) – by “fun” I mean non-science, non-required classes. There simply aren’t enough hours in a day when you consider her science & lab-intense schedule, a work-study job at a science lab, and practice/travel for her school sport. </p>
<p>I guess I think that it’d be NICE for premeds to be able to take conversational Spanish or underwater basketweaving for that matter. So sue me. ;)</p>
<p>Additionally, it would also be very useful for many physicians to know conversational Spanish, as there are many Spanish-speakers living in the United States. The physician daughter of a co-worker (several years ago) actually went to Spain for a summer language immersion program before beginning a residency or fellowship (I can’t remember) in a New York City hospital where she anticipated dealing with a lot of Spanish-speaking (non-English-speaking) patients.</p>
<p>Actually, it would be nice if most physicians would/could actually converse, period. Seems like the ones we see have one foot out the door before they’ve even started. Between the jam-packed scheduling of patients, the social ineptness (of some, not all!), and my inability to understand some of the thick accents, conversing with the doctor is basically non-existent in my neck of the woods.</p>
<p>Katlia, I think it would be more than nice for them to take other courses - I think it would be great. It is just very, very hard, and if their personal interests and passions are also dominated by science, they have less incentive. It can be quite hard as a student taking lots of science courses, especially the memorization heavy ones, to change course and take a class requiring heavy duty writing - it may be good for you as an intellectual workout, but it is hard to do, and then there is that all important GPA to worry about. ;).</p>
<p>This is a “bugs me” topic, sorry, when you are looking at 12-15 years of college and training at age 20, it is hard to justify slowing down and adding an extra year to study subjects not directly related to your career path, but seeing it at age 50, you realize that that time and study is a lifelong gift.</p>
<p>Med school selects out for the overachievers, but, again, who do you want to meet you in the ER??</p>
<p>midmo, you are absolutely correct about syllabi. While we’ve seen some attempt in the form of a general sheet handed out at back-to-school night, these sheets are merely a list of topics to be covered during the year–no dates, no specific assignments, etc. Only one of my S’s teachers had every assignment, quiz and test outlined in advance. S took full advantage of that knowledge as it gave him more flexibility to plan ahead for a busy evening or weekend.</p>
<p>I think selective neglect is a very useful concept, but was not much help in my D’s situation as the assignments were all last-minute and pretty major. Also, some assignments take about the same time to do them as to do them well, so there’s nothing to be gained there. I mean either you solve the math problem or you don’t. It’s hard to skimp. Furthermore, selective neglect is a tool that works best for really bright kids who will typically have several classes in which they’re getting a high A. So they can afford to blow off quizzes or homework in those classes if necessary in order to concentrate on a more difficult course or assignment. Less stellar kids usually don’t have much of a grade buffer if any, and so can’t afford to neglect anything or that B may become a C. And for a big assignment like a term paper that will make up a large percentage of the grade, neglect would be foolish.</p>
<p>Pre-med angst? How’d we get here? Oh. It was me, wasn’t it? Sorry, OP.</p>
<p>But since we are here, D started out with a plan. Bio and Spanish double major. That lasted oh…about as long as it took her to schedule her first couple of years in pencil. It wasn’t going to work at her school (for her). So, she said huh…I know that the trend is to be an English pre-med, but I really am a science geek so I’ll just get a double major in Bio and Chem. That’s not looking likely right now either. </p>
<p>Her school has substantial requirements to take courses outside your major , but they are disbursed around so much it seems difficult to turn one area into a double major. I think it would be possible to do if she had used her AP credits, or gone to a school that gave credit for dual/credit - but she didn’t (except for Calc BC). </p>
<p>So, she is getting a good “smattering” of courses (or will as time goes on) but right now she is intent on taking the MCAT next summer, after sophomore year, so she wants to get as many “covered” courses under her belt as possible. Hence the hunger that led to the over-full grocery sacks. </p>
<p>But Cangel</p>
<p>
this is exactly why I said it was going to happen sometime, might as well be now. And as usual you are spot on. It is her perfectionism that produces her pain. She is doing really well in all her classes, setting the curve in a couple. But she’s not where she wants to be. At the top of all of them. So , like I said, it had to happen sometime. For me that was probably first grade.;)</p>
<p>You don’t want me to get started! I am SOOO tired of teachers who expect kids to dance on the heads of pins to get work done and turned in on time, and then take EIGHT WEEKS to grade an essay. How are the kids supposed to know how they are doing/where they can improve? By the time they get their papers back, the quarter is gone and it’s too late to redeem oneself. It has driven one of my kids into massive writing anxiety – he was up til 1:30 AM finishing two short essays. </p>
<p>Then there’s another teacher who gave an in-class assignment while one of my kids was absent, and then the teacher was absent for a week. Kid gets quarter grade – 89.2. WTH? He had an A. Goes to teacher – “Oh, yeah, I shouldn’t have given you a zero, but it won’t affect your semester grade…” </p>
<p>At least DS2’s AP USH teacher gives reading assignments a week in advance. DS works through it over the weekend and has his notes finished before they start discussing the material in class. It saves him an hour a night during the week. Anyone wonder why he does better in that class than any other?!?!?! ;)</p>
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