Preparing to send a kid off to college is no easy task. Sprat is two years away from going to college but there are still things that have to be done at this stage. Sprat is supposed to be preparing by taking classes and being involved in clubs and the community during these couple of years before applying to college. Our high school offers many AP and Honors classes for the kids preparing for college. They changed things up this year and required the parents and students to attend an information session about the AP classes. If you did not come to this meeting your student could not apply to take the AP classes. I agree that parents have to be involved and that both parent and child should be aware of the commitment required to do well in these classes but, I think this may be a little far reaching. The students were also required to sit in on a talk by the teacher about what ever class they were interested in. If they did not sit in on that session then they were not allowed to apply for that AP class. I say "apply" because they made the students write an essay on why they thought they deserved to be in this particular class and what they were going to do to excel in that class. Again, I think this is just a little over the top for a high school. They have now scared my kid to death about taking AP classes. I thought the whole point of our education system was to encourage our kids to learn and want to excel and want to do their best. Our high school seems to be discouraging our kids at every turn. I wonder what would happen if all 450 students in my sons' class did not sign up for a single AP class? I know that won't happen because the parents in our high school have been brain washed to follow the pack.
Sprat is so afraid of taking those courses, he is afraid he will not do well and it will hurt his GPA. So, instead of encouraging our kids to stretch their limits our school is trying to squelch them. I am trying to encourage Sprat to stretch his limits but he is afraid because of what the administrators have told him. He is taking honors classes, so that will help.
Sprat will be a junior this year and this is the year to start applying for some scholarships. We still have a few more tours to do when I can work them in. Then he will start actually deciding on where he wants to go and start filling out those applications. He already knows of two schools he does not want to go to, one because it is too big the other because it is in the mountains and is very cold in the winter. How is that for choosing a college? Everyone has their own criteria I guess. At least he has an idea of what he wants and does not want. I found this giant book of scholarships at my local used bookstore and it has a lot of scholarships that kids can apply for and some do not require essays. There is one in there that only requires the kid be over six foot two inches in height. There is another one for kids that are left handed, I cannot remember if that one requires an essay or not.
By the time I get Sprat ready to go off to college I should be an expert on this stuff and Big T should be a breeze. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!!
Stay tuned lots going on. . . The hubbs made salsa last week and feel another batch to come. . .
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