"John H" wrote in message
...
What's interesting is trying to figure out why my son does well in
school.
We discussed this a few weeks ago, along with a couple of thugs he had
over
for dinner. The consensus was "I dunno....got any more root beer?".
Seriously, his crew doesn't compete with one another. And, the parents
don't
nag. They seem to think it's a matter of "If you're smart to begin with,
why
waste it?" Or, as my son likes to say, "Who wants to be dumb? You could
end
up being the president."


If he's taking algebra in 8th grade, he's in a good peer group. Do
your damndest to keep him there. Get him into Geometry during summer
school, and then into Algebra 2 as a Freshman. That puts him two years
ahead of the "masses". Then he can take Pre-calculus as a sophomore,
Calculus 1 and 2 as a Junior, and Multivariate Calculus as a senior.
Then he'll be ready for whatever college has to offer. He may have to
retake multivariate, but he'll be way ahead of the game.

I'm not sure I believe that last sentence. Methinks he's been reading
too many Harry K posts in the group. Harvard MBA holders are not dumb.

No 8th grader is going to admit to liking school or trying to do well.
It ain't kewl. He *is* competing with the other algebra students,
though. But you'll probably never get him to admit it!

John H

He's in 9th now. He took advanced algebra last year and hit a 97. This year,
some knucklehead (my ex) let him take computer graphics which, due to
scheduling conflicts, shoved his first taste of algebra into this semester.
He loves the computer stuff, but that's the last time he dicks around with
his math courses. I had a clause added into the separation agreement about
consulting on course selection.

As far as his comment on the president, he came up with that one all on his
own, sort of. When he used to ask the classic kid question about what to be
when he grows up, I used to give him the classic answer: "You can grow up to
be anything - the president, if you want to". At the same time, English is
the one course where I get out the whip. I don't think there's any excuse
for being inarticulate. The result is that he listens to grammar very
closely. When he hears the monkey on the news, he shakes his head in
disbelief.