@parent24: Many have asked you if you can really take all that your son tells you at face value, and also if he is a glass half-empty/half-full type of person.
I would truly want to think that my well-adjusted, really smart kids could assess any situational upset or disappointment, seek to find a way to do what they needed to do while there, and, if not, actively undertake to find ways to finish successfully whatever term they were in and then move into the next phase of completing their goals elsewhere if necessary. Maybe his reaching out to you is his way of bringing you on board as his partner in this search, but is he looking as well?
Could he simply be using you as his sounding board, knowing you will carry the upset for him? You sound pretty darned upset.
I was at Wesleyan this fall during an open house session when the students completely took over the space set up for parents to have an audience with the president, listening to his philosophy and approach to life at Wesleyan. The students handed out pamphlets to parents wherein they implored that we make inquiries of the president, then encircled the room with their body-sized banners, a bull horn, guterral utterances and interruptions. There was one young lady (a speaker for the group) adorned in the thickest machine link of chain I have ever seen, and I believe it was she who actually spit during the president’s address to parents. I thought that was disgusting. I thought the commandeering of the room disrespectful. I thought the president handled that level of disrespect quite well, until he couldn’t, and walked quietly down the center aisle and out of the door.
Clearly the university is undergoing some deep riffs between the student body and administration. Is that strife something which is wearing on your son? Would it be possible to lessen his tension by lessening your own?
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