[ale] Making kids stop being entitled slackers with free software

[Jim Kinney]

With my kid the issue is he has set himself some pretty high goals
academically and it will require dropping game time for study time.

He wants to start GT as a junior in the cross-enroll program and skip his
senior year entirely and go straight into Tech on the early enrollment
program. Additionally, he's just signed up to take both AP chemistry AND AP
physics next year. He'll be a sophomore.

I think he is perfectly capable of this providing he learns how to
self-regulate his game time and his online "group yammering with friends"
time. His friends are all good kids, bright, motivated, but they don't have
a path they've chosen that's as rigorous as he has. The conversations from
GT are the number one reason kids flunk out of Tech is they play games
instead of study. My son has never really _had_ to study. (Go Georgia
schools! Yeah! _MORE_ local control will make thing on par with other
states! <sigh>) With this schedule, he will have no choice but to learn how
to study.

I went through high school, 7 majors in college and was in my first year in
grad school before I hit the wall and realized I had zilch for study
skills. Raw skills and talent are great. Carefully honed skills and talent
are unstoppable. Of all the things the K12 schools get wrong, not teaching
_how_ to learn is nearly criminal negligence.


On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 10:51 AM, Dustin Strickland <
dustin.h.strickland at gmail.com> wrote:

> I wasn't very motivated as a teen, either. I dropped out at 16 because
> the curriculum bored me(a major failing of our education system, but
> that's for another thread) and started going to school for radiology,
> but I couldn't keep it up because our parents are "rich." I didn't
> qualify for enough financial aid to keep going. If he drops out like
> I did, he's not going to be able to go to college for the same reason;
> not to mention that they keep tightening their grip on the financial
> aid.
>
> I'm 21 now, and I'm devoting all my time to studying Linux so I can
> get certified and either start up my own company, or as a contingency
> plan, go work for someone more established. And no shit - it is *hard*.
> I taught myself just about everything I know from self-developed
> exercises, working odd jobs in the field, scouring MIT's free
> coursework, reading mind-numbing amounts of man pages and any free
> ebooks I can find. I don't want him to have to put himself through
> school, becoming his own teacher, like I'm doing just so he can have a
> decent career. It would be much easier on him if he used his brain to
> graduate with honors like my dumb ass should have done.
>
> On Thu, 6 Mar 2014 10:03:41 -0500
> leam hall <leamhall at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I must confess to being a pretty unmotivated teen and
> > twenty-something.Thirties were pretty slack, IIRC. Once I found my
> > niche things took off. Every few years I re-evaluate and am either
> > renewed or ramping up in a new direction.
> >
> > Sometimes I regret missed opportunities of youth. Yet with a late
> > start I've not done bad and enjoy life much of the time.
> >
> > Leam
> >
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain
at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain


*http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
<http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/>*
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