Is getting grades below B normal or is it a sign of something going on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, it’s mostly theoretical though my kid does have running Cs here and there but not as a semester grade. He definitely CAN do well, there’s no dyslexia, that’s why I think it can just be a motivation issue.

It’s apathy. It’s a HUGE problem among a lot of students. I was just talking to a high school teacher about this. He said he just can’t get students to care. Even with in class assignments, students will just not do them and play games on their Chromebooks or put their head down instead

I suspect there may be low key adhd too, but mostly yes, I feel like he has niche interests and school isn’t one of them. I am torn, I don’t think an argumentative essay about teen abortion rights is a very exciting choice for a 14 yo boy, but then why not quickly get it out of the way and do whatever is interesting?

ADHD could be why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are not apathetic. I guess we just are lucky. I will say that if they were apathetic, then I think tiger mom would need to suddenly appear in their lives. Raaar.

This OP. You need to get tough. Put some consequences in for when his grades slide to less than A (or regular classes) due to lack of effort. Not finding the work interesting is irrelevant. He needs to grow up and develop some work ethic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are not apathetic. I guess we just are lucky. I will say that if they were apathetic, then I think tiger mom would need to suddenly appear in their lives. Raaar.

This OP. You need to get tough. Put some consequences in for when his grades slide to less than A (or regular classes) due to lack of effort. Not finding the work interesting is irrelevant. He needs to grow up and develop some work ethic

Ok, dragon-mom.

[Anonymous]

If I was the teacher and a helicopter mom was harassing me to bump a C up to an A and I felt pressure and coercion from the admin, then I might inflate if I wanted to keep my teaching job. But if I did it for one family of cheaters then I would have to do it for every kid in the class rendering the competitive nature of grades useless and corrupted. Stfo of the classroom helicopter moms

[Anonymous]

It's not fair to all the kids when a couple bad apple parents want to threaten a teachers career bc they grade fairly. I've been in a situation where parents want to help an admin retaliate on teachers who dont inflate enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a middle class student from a functional family with no apparent LDs and reasonably intelligent (say, IQ above 120) is getting Cs in HS in several subjects (including Gen Ed classes), would you think they are just not motivated or would you look for hidden LDs?

I’ve had a conversation with someone who said any reasonably intelligent kid will get As and Bs in HS, at least in regular classes, and there’s something going on if they don’t (like ADHD or dyslexia). My take, however, is that some kids just aren’t motivated enough to care.

What does everyone think?

Agree with the bolded statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I was the teacher and a helicopter mom was harassing me to bump a C up to an A and I felt pressure and coercion from the admin, then I might inflate if I wanted to keep my teaching job. But if I did it for one family of cheaters then I would have to do it for every kid in the class rendering the competitive nature of grades useless and corrupted. Stfo of the classroom helicopter moms

I am not talking about that. I am talking about a child who apparently doesn’t do the work/doesn’t care on the surface.
Wondering if something is broken or it’s just the way they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not fair to all the kids when a couple bad apple parents want to threaten a teachers career bc they grade fairly. I've been in a situation where parents want to help an admin retaliate on teachers who dont inflate enough.

This is not relevant to this discussion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not fair to all the kids when a couple bad apple parents want to threaten a teachers career bc they grade fairly. I've been in a situation where parents want to help an admin retaliate on teachers who dont inflate enough.

+1

But FCPS is full of unfairness. We have a teacher staffing crisis as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a middle class student from a functional family with no apparent LDs and reasonably intelligent (say, IQ above 120) is getting Cs in HS in several subjects (including Gen Ed classes), would you think they are just not motivated or would you look for hidden LDs?

I’ve had a conversation with someone who said any reasonably intelligent kid will get As and Bs in HS, at least in regular classes, and there’s something going on if they don’t (like ADHD or dyslexia). My take, however, is that some kids just aren’t motivated enough to care.

What does everyone think?

A kid with an IQ over 120 who’s getting C’s in regular classes has some sort of problem going on.

Excelling in all subjects isn't about IQ. It's more about work ethic and executive function skills. Regular public school academics aren't genius level requiring high IQ, but there is a lot of busy work and the kids who excel have to have great time management and organization skills. Geniuses tend to focus on narrow set of subjects usually and overperform there, while struggling to keep top performance in subjects they have little interest in. High IQ also can go hand in hand with poor executive function skills and anxiety. Such kids are unlikely to have nice polished college "resumes" with top grades and massive hours of extracurriculars. The latter requires very different skills and personality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I was the teacher and a helicopter mom was harassing me to bump a C up to an A and I felt pressure and coercion from the admin, then I might inflate if I wanted to keep my teaching job. But if I did it for one family of cheaters then I would have to do it for every kid in the class rendering the competitive nature of grades useless and corrupted. Stfo of the classroom helicopter moms

I am not talking about that. I am talking about a child who apparently doesn’t do the work/doesn’t care on the surface.
Wondering if something is broken or it’s just the way they are.

Why do your comments sound like you are a nosy gossiping relative and not parent who cares about their child thriving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a middle class student from a functional family with no apparent LDs and reasonably intelligent (say, IQ above 120) is getting Cs in HS in several subjects (including Gen Ed classes), would you think they are just not motivated or would you look for hidden LDs?

I’ve had a conversation with someone who said any reasonably intelligent kid will get As and Bs in HS, at least in regular classes, and there’s something going on if they don’t (like ADHD or dyslexia). My take, however, is that some kids just aren’t motivated enough to care.

What does everyone think?

First, you got the IQ thing wrong. 120 is not average it’s above average, only about 10% of people test there.

A legitimate IQ test has an average of 100. About 50% of students will have scores between 90 - 110. Between 110 - 120 is above average. 120 - 139 is a bright student and over 140 is very rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a middle class student from a functional family with no apparent LDs and reasonably intelligent (say, IQ above 120) is getting Cs in HS in several subjects (including Gen Ed classes), would you think they are just not motivated or would you look for hidden LDs?

I’ve had a conversation with someone who said any reasonably intelligent kid will get As and Bs in HS, at least in regular classes, and there’s something going on if they don’t (like ADHD or dyslexia). My take, however, is that some kids just aren’t motivated enough to care.

What does everyone think?

First, you got the IQ thing wrong. 120 is not average it’s above average, only about 10% of people test there.

A legitimate IQ test has an average of 100. About 50% of students will have scores between 90 - 110. Between 110 - 120 is above average. 120 - 139 is a bright student and over 140 is very rare.

But not on DCUM. 120 is low and in need of multiple interventions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a middle class student from a functional family with no apparent LDs and reasonably intelligent (say, IQ above 120) is getting Cs in HS in several subjects (including Gen Ed classes), would you think they are just not motivated or would you look for hidden LDs?

I’ve had a conversation with someone who said any reasonably intelligent kid will get As and Bs in HS, at least in regular classes, and there’s something going on if they don’t (like ADHD or dyslexia). My take, however, is that some kids just aren’t motivated enough to care.

What does everyone think?

There’s a lot of nuance here. My kid gets the occasional C. No LDs but ADHD/ASD. He used to refuse work in school and get in trouble. So to me, having friends and doing the vast majority of his work is success beyond my wildest dreams!

That said, some teachers have like 2 homeworks and that winds up being some big percentage of the grade. Or the kid turns in make up work and it’s never added to the book. Or the kid bombs a test because a certain subject is hard for them.

Overall, the work isn’t very hard for student to get done during school. Could they study more? Sure. Will they? No.

I advise my kid to talk to the teacher. If they choose not to, I let it go. We discuss GPA to get into a state school and they take it under advisement.

I like the approach laid out in The Self Driven Child combined with real talk about expectations for self support post age 18. It’s not up to me. It’s up to them. Counterintuitive advice I know, but so far I’m happy overall with grades. In some subjects, they have had great results at times.