pushing

On the phone with the Asst. Principal this morning to follow up on Jake's emails to teachers left unanswered. Also consulted the student handbook. With a Regents score of 95 and "successful" completion of Earth Science, he should be able to go into Honors Biology, the Asst. Principal noted. But no one is around in the Guidance office to change his schedule. Also, no one is able to tell us if Jake can do the Science Research program and if it fits in his schedule. The summer requirements are significant and if he's going do it, he starts working today. Actually, yesterday he started reading articles, even if he can't get in. No choice. Dive in and hope for the best.

I feel bad I wasn't on top of this earlier. I should have questioned about the Honors class when I had the chance earlier this summer but didn't stop to think of it. I trusted Jake that the cut off point was 95 for the class as he told me. It wasn't, it was 90 and one point away. And he easily scored the 90+ requirement on the Regents. And when I brought up the Science Research class, Jake told me that there was an advanced science pre req he didn't have. I only thought yesterday to ask, who told you that? Another kid. Did you ask a TEACHER? Silence. Do you want this? Well, yes but I didn't think I could take it. Well, let's figure out if you can get in!! Jake, you always have to go to the source. You have to let your teachers know what you're interested in and talk to them.

Ugh. This kid drives me crazy. I HAVE to oversee or he's going to miss the boat on stuff. And yet I have to NOT helicopter. Finding that balance drives me crazy. I need to teach him to go ask and go to the source and to not just take whatever he can get. To ask for clarifications? You want something? Go find out what you have to do, in objective terms. Don't just have the ambiguous goal of studying harder. Don't rely on info from a kid, who is not going to be out to help you and only protecting his own status. Go to your counselor. Go to the teacher!

AAAArghhhhh!

But you know what? He's just like me at that age. I get it. And I have to help him.