Post Thanksgiving Blues

mafool
Sun, 25 Nov 2007 11:59:00 +0000

Dear Almost,

This is not uncommon, as I’m sure you know. The engin program at our S’s school has something like a 45% attrition rate. The work IS hard and there is a ton of it. Pretty much be definition, all of S’s classmates were in the top few percentage points of their HS classes. Now they are grouped together and they are graded on curves. They can’t all be A students, so many were in for shocks.

S has learned how to study. He has also learned that, at this point, he cannot do everything as well or as completely as he would like to. Hard lessons, both.

As observed above, this is something your son will have to work out. You can encourage him to hang in there for the rest of the year if you think that is wise. Please forgive me if I am overstepping here, but I also encourage you to let him know explicitly that your love is not contingent on his GPA. I learned from our S that fear of disappointing parents was the one and only reason some of his Eng classmates continued with a curriculum they truly did not like.