My kids were both in pre college music ensembles. They rehearsed weekly for 3 hours. Before performances, there was always one extra dress rehearsal on a weeknight. This was a music conservatory ore college program.
Are you saying that there are four or five hour rehearsals after school on three days a week? And every Saturday too?
This could definitely happen for something like a school play or musical. Not unusual at all.
ETA…these parents could start their own CC account if THEY really want to have this infomation!
Sounds like the kid is in marching band, or something similar.
My experience (two kids did marching band - one quit after a couple of years, mostly because of the time required with not much payoff in her opinion - has been more often parents insisting their kids stick with it and the kids wanting to drop it because of the required time commitment.
Unless there is a significant drop in grades, let the kid make her own decision. It may be her source of close friendships. She may be getting more out of it than you know.
Back when the dinosaurs roamed…I was in a HS performing group that rehearsed BEFORE school. Each section rehearsed one day…and the whole group rehearsed on Fridays…for 1 1/2 hours each time…before school.
This was in addition to a daily 45 minute ensemble class, and after school rehearsals when performances were near.
I have to say…I still count the members of that ensemble among my friends these many years later.
This was pretty much the schedule I had when I was doing theater tech in high school. It was a small group of us and we were very close. Did my grades suffer? Probably, but 10 years later I’m in a top PhD program and still pretty close to most of the people I worked with.
I think the short term obsession with grades and trying to game the system is incredibly short sighted and can really take much of the long-term joy out of life.
If my 1st child had not become deeply intellectually engaged in his two EC’s – debate and journalism – and his major out of school hobby – he might well have drifted in his class assignments, out of simple boredom.
At the same time he was not a grade grubber and never bought into the goal of maximizing his GPA.
He was his own young man. Very accomplished. But only an A- GPA (though extremely high SAT’s).
Even if it’s none of OP’s business, the thread might be helpful to someone.
My son decided not to take a fourth year of language or science his senior year because he was passionate about theatre and music and wanted to take more of those subjects instead. We let it be his decision, but explained that it would likely hurt his Brown application (which it did). He said he was fine taking the risk.
He didn’t slack off at all and graduated with a 4.6 W (or thereabouts–can’t remember the details). A harder class might have given him a slightly higher GPA, but wouldn’t have made him very happy. He just finished his first year at Oberlin, where he has a 3.9. He tells us it would be a 4.0, but because he wanted a life outside of class, he slacked off a little. Some slacking is good for you.
It’s not always slacking to take breaks or to work less hard. The human body has its limits and working obscenely long hours is neither good for your grades nor for your health.
One thing that all parents should try to do during their kids’ high school years is teach them to explore things-- new things, good things, areas where they excel and areas where they fail. There aren’t too many chances in life to do this. If a kid enjoys an activity for whatever reason and it is not harmful, I would support it. My kids were in sports teams, musical groups, theater, clubs, had volunteer jobs and paid jobs during high school. They learned a lot about themselves and some of those experiences later served them very well in college and after college.
If a friend asks @WorryHurry411 a question regarding their kid, @WorryHurry411 replies honestly but also asks parents forum (without posting any names, schools or towns) to hear perspectives of other posters.
As a parent one can relate to concerns of other parents.