Hi Sisters
I am at a loss with my 16yo daughter and don't know what to do. She is in year 11 and has struggled most of her high school years with most of her subjects. We just received her end of semester report and she received mostly D's, a couple of Es and one A+ (For music)
She studies hard, listens in class etc, but doesn't seem to be retaining the information, over thinks or doesn't get basics. I am worried because when she finishes Yr 12 next year she wants to go to Uni and do a Bachelor of early education and become a Kindy teacher.
What should I do?? I am not sure that she would make it through Uni?? I would love for her to follow her dreams as she is great with kids, but are we setting her up for failure? Should we talk about other career paths?? Have any of you been through this or have a child in a similar situation?
6 Replies
Has she received any tutoring? What do her teachers say about what concepts she is missing?
Don't get too disheartened sometimes it takes kids a few years to work out where they really want to be and where there groove is and sometimes failure is a part of that.
I was terrible at school in high school. I just didn't get it. A few years of doing crap jobs did me no harm. Got into uni as a mature age student, studied psychology and got straight distinctions etc. it just turned out my writing style and brain were better suited to a scientific writing style, which is generally not what is wanted in high school English classes etc.
I don't think you are setting her up for failure, but failure is a part of life and building resilience.
Support her. If she has a goal, a passion, thats the best thing you can hope for. Support it. Help her find the support, there is so much available if she wants it she will persevere and she will get it. If she finds it too hard, its probably the learning curve she needs to find what is more suitable - perhaps early childcare. Failure doesnt have to be a bad thing, its a learning curve. But you dont want her always wanting it and regretting not doing it. Doing uni later in life is a thousand times harder, let alone if she already struggles, thats why I say if she wants it, help her now.
There's ways around it if she doesn't get the ATAR required, such as completing a cert 3 and then moving into a diploma in Early Childhood education as opposed to the Bachelor (bachelor is much more full on and if she struggles this much at school I imagine she'd struggle with uni). Diploma is really easy compared to a Bachelor and you can do it through smaller channels like private TAFEs and RTOs so there's more support and guidance.
Sometimes school just isn't for everyone and it's so black and white, yes or no, no room for creativity or variance in beliefs. So unless she is doing things to the textbook, the school see it as a fail unfortunately :( I'd engage a careers counsellor and look at pathways into doing what she wants to do that maybe doesn't involve uni for now :)
Has she always struggled? I would be looking into why and getting her assed for a learning disability (difference I like to call it). If there is a learning disability there you can then look at getting accomodations put in place for extra time in exams etc.
Has she always struggled? I would be looking into why and getting her assed for a learning disability (difference I like to call it). If there is a learning disability there you can then look at getting accomodations put in place for extra time in exams etc.
My fiancé ( been together 13 years but knew each other in high school) sucked at school. He hated it! In the end he did a bakers apprenticeship which he then turned into a pastey chef career which due to a fortune family discussion turned into a diesel mechanic apprenticeship which he is now fully qualified and on over 100k a year but me who did really well in school did a uni degree is business couldn't get a job ( nor could 90% of my year mates) and noone from uni I'm still mates with do anything in business. Im now running a HS canteen. Maybe help her find her passion see if anything is available in that area. Look at trades its where the money is these days