[sziklassy]

LMAO... wow... dunno why I read India, heh.

[bruinsrme]

Originally Posted by soulthoughts

As a parent, here's my take. You sound pompous. You sound less convincing and more arrogant, as if you're trying to get back at your parents for something.

Also as a parent, it seems to me that there's always two sides to a kid's story. I wonder what the other side is?

You sound like my wife and I. The other side of the story usually provides the details needed to make the best decisions.
1. His friends are going to the other school. ++++
2. He is pointing out his teachers are not teaching him.
He is not in honors or advanced classes. If I had to guess a C student and has a beef with the English teacher because the teacher is trying to push/motivate them and/or the course is demanding and the sudent is not doing the assignments and is texting all day long poking at the teacher. +++++
3. He may simply want to attend the new school. Nah

My previous post would be exactly what I would have expected my son to present to us before we would have entertained such a request. (facts and not hearsay or whining)
When I said data we had already pulled it so we knew what that ws all about.
We listened to our son, then spoke to the teacher.
Our son was right once, and we stood by him.
When it came to grades 100 times out of 100 he didn't do his homework, complete assignment, or did poorly on tests. When the class average was higher than 85% and he scores in the 50's or 60's he is not doing his job.

I explained to him his job is school and his achievements will be reflected in the things he gets or wants to do. Better grades more things. Just like in real life. You perform great you get a big raise/promotion, average performance gets a little, poor performance (since I can't pull him out of school, he got things taken away TV, Xbox, internet, any thing that would tap into the discretionary funds).

He pulled some good stuff going through k-12. He never caught on that my wife and I had been there and done all that and more.

Stepping off the box, thank you if you read the rant.

[Sullivan0930]

last page is bad. fact that you have to sleep at your friends house sometimes, just to get to school..not good.

also having to give your parents a powerpoint? weird.

[bruinsrme]

I love the fact he put a presentation together. That would be a big plus in my eyes.
If it was my son I would have kicked it back to him and tell him to tell me why he should transfer not what he didn't like about his current school.

[sziklassy]

I think alot of you are making the assumption that this kid's parents are intelligent and well-informed. The fact of the matter is that all too many parents are NOT well informed at all. What we have to work off of is what he tells us, assume THAT is 100% true, and not the contrary. We were told that his parents essentially shot down his request to begin with. We were given no reason to assume his parents did any research. His statement that he spends little time with his parents, to me, is a cry for help. If his dad is anything like my dad was (and thank god he is out of my life now) I can see where he is coming from. We just don't know...

As to the "pompous and arrogant" comment... I don't see it. In any case, parents need to get over the fact that their kids will challenge their decisions. He is giving reasons why he should be able to make the move. If his parents simply say "because I said so" I find that more pompous and arrogant than a kid trying to pull facts to strengthen his points. The parents in this channel seem to be leaning more towards "the parents are always right" attitude. YOU may always know what is best for your kids but I ASSURE you ALL parents do not...

[bruinsrme]

There are several other issues at hand here.
Different school districts. Different counties.
This all would play into the districting rules, residency requirements, and funding requirements.

here are the requirements to register:
Students enrolled in the School City of Hobart must:

1. Live within the legal boundaries of the School City of Hobart and live with his parent(s) or guardian(s).
NOTE: The school corporation boundaries are NOT the same as those for the city of Hobart.

2. Provide the original birth certificate giving the exact date of birth so that a duplicate can be filed.

3. Provide immunization records.

4. Provide three of the following:
a. Parent/Guardian must provide an Indiana Driver's License or Indiana State I.D. listing their current Hobart address.
b. Proof of home ownership (mortgage papers, letter from real estate agent)
c. Two recent utility bills showing name and address
d. Notarized affidavit signed by landlord
e. Copy of a lease or rental agreement
f. Notarized affidavit from person whose house you live in
g. Notarized affidavit from parent


As far as drug usage, here is some good reading about hobart hih
Drug survey results at Hobart high school spur talk of testing (The Times of Northwest Indiana) | Pass a Drug Test

The student to teacher ratio is 1:20 at Portage and 1:22 at hobart.

Here are a couple of links breaking down the two schools (very close) portage has a higher graduation rate even though they are 3x the size of hobart.
hobart http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/SEARC....cfm?schl=4305
Portage http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/SEARC....cfm?schl=6853

Now as a parent and looking at this data to work with I would be a NO on the transfer.

[bhz1]

Interesting.

Not all kids are out for whats in it for them. I have three sons, ages 14, 17 and 19. (grades 9, 12 and college freshman). My oldest would probably not care and just go to his normal school. My middle son would probably want to go to the "better school". This boy from as early as 3rd grade self-inflicted high academic standards upon himself. His dad and I continually preached for him to chill and relax a bit, a sub-90 grade was not the end of the world. Throughout his high school career he selected the highest level classes he could in math and science, selecting honors level for all others. As a senior he had room for an elective, and instead of choosing what the rest of us might have considered a fun elective, he chose Linear Algebra. This is on top of BC Calculus, AP Physics (elec & Magnetism), AP compSci. This was his own choosing. Not all teens are looking for fun and the easy way out all of the time. My youngest, also tends to be interested in his own academic progress as well.

Not knowing anything about the areas in which these two high schools are located, from the statistics presented, it seems like the current school sounds much like some of the "neighborhood" high schools in NYC where I grew up. I ended up attending a "magnet school" instead, fortunately i was smart enough to pass teh entrance test, but the main reason was that the local schools were rampant with drugs and petty crime. Safety was the main issue. Many of the kids felt this way and parents were too oblivious to see it.

Now, one thing I am very happy about now that 2 of the boys drive, is that i do not have to drive my kids anywhere (most of the time anyway). My 12th grader drives his younger brother to and from school and often to other places as well. The last thing i would want to have to do is start driving kids places again. I love to drive but i hate being tied down to their schedules. You mention your dad being retired, but its still asking a lot for him to drive everyday. your parents may also feel that even though your friends are willing to host you, you may outwear your welcome. Heck when my kids were younger I didn't even want to ask people to have them stay for a weekend if we needed to go somewhere.

I concur with the comments made regarding the sarcasm. Stick to the academics and the safety issues. You might also want to look up some statistics on college acceptances and graduation rates (don't recall if you included those). And... what colleges do the graduates attend. This info should be available through the schools guidance office. My kids' high school has a published profile and other schools probably have the same. Example profile . This is what you need to find for your two schools and use as ammunition.

Good Luck.

some parents could give a rat's Arse about their kids. I had a very good friend in high school whose parents would not ALLOW her to attend college because neither of them went and it was "good enough for them". She was brilliant and ended up married to a loser like her father. She finally divorced him and worked her way through school, all without her parent's blessing. They haven't forgiven her for getting divorced! Parents do not always know best. Most haven't a clue who their kids even are. Those of us who have made the effort to accept our kids for who they are, not as some clone of ourselves are rewarded with kids who actually talk to us and listen. And by listen I dont necessarily mean obey blindly. Far too many parents take the "becasue I say so attitude" and its dead wrong.

[RonnyT24]

I think this powerpoint would be better served with pictures of some of the cute girls at the school. Throw a few winks at dad and your in there like swim wear. Lol nah just kiddin. But honestly i went though something like this with my parents when i was in school. Talked to my parents and they went through the whole oh you just want to go because your friend moved (he moved like 2 years earlier but meh) and you just want to hang otu with him again. Well turns out my english teacher (the one who was failing me) was changing my grades. Ill admit i talked in school and paid attention about 10% of the time but damned if i wasnt a good student (retention wise). My parents and I went to school and i demanded to see my scores and her calculations on my grades. What she didnt know was that i had kept a ton of my tests and stuff like that so she was caught. My mom was FURIOUS! dad was mad too but... hes dad. My mom got her fired and all this other stuff. Then i got to move lol. And i was back to being an a/b student.

All in all just speak the truth. Parents arent there to retard progression (hopefully). They should understand if everything you say is true. Nice slides tho.

[soulthoughts]

Originally Posted by sziklassy

I think alot of you are making the assumption that this kid's parents are intelligent and well-informed. The fact of the matter is that all too many parents are NOT well informed at all...

As to the "pompous and arrogant" comment... I don't see it. In any case, parents need to get over the fact that their kids will challenge their decisions. He is giving reasons why he should be able to make the move. If his parents simply say "because I said so" I find that more pompous and arrogant than a kid trying to pull facts to strengthen his points. The parents in this channel seem to be leaning more towards "the parents are always right" attitude. YOU may always know what is best for your kids but I ASSURE you ALL parents do not...

Great point but a lot are also assuming that this kid is on the up and up. The OP asked for input from parents. That's my input as a parent. There are two sides and a lot of times the sides are vastly disparate.

I'm not assuming his parents are right. I'm simply looking for both sides of the coin. As a rule in my house, 4 kids (5 if you count me!), we always discuss actions and consequences. This way, my kids know that a lot of what happens, they bring on themselves.

I do agree that there are a ton of parents who take no stake in their child's lives. I see it all the time with some of the friends of my kids.

[bruinsrme]

Originally Posted by soulthoughts

I do agree that their are a ton of parents who take no stake in their child's lives. I see it all the time with some of the friends of my kids.

When my son started pulling his crap we asked the teachers to email us progress reports and a syllabus. All of them were excited to do it.

Yes I agree there are a lot of parents that can't be bothered.

To the OP bust your butt the rest of the year. You owe it to yourself, not to your parents, to get the most out of your education as you can.

[bhz1]

Originally Posted by soulthoughts

Great point but a lot are also assuming that this kid is on the up and up. The OP asked for input from parents. That's my input as a parent. There are two sides and a lot of times the sides are vastly disparate.

I'm not assuming his parents are right. I'm simply looking for both sides of the coin. As a rule in my house, 4 kids (5 if you count me!), we always discuss actions and consequences. This way, my kids know that a lot of what happens, they bring on themselves.

I do agree that there are a ton of parents who take no stake in their child's lives. I see it all the time with some of the friends of my kids.

You are absolutely correct that there are always 2 sides to a story and in many cases they are far apart. Ive seen both sides of the coin. Kids who truly do the right things and teachers that seem to have it out for a particular student. This happened to my sister as a teen and seems to have replayed with one of her daughters. Both of them are very quiet and shy and I believe this bothers some teachers. Just as kids can be bullies, so can adults. In teh case of my sister, I remember my parents going up to school and learning that my sister reminded her teacher of someone she disliked. Her daughter's teacher ended up being fired becasue she was just a total incompetant. She's lose the kids papers and assignments then mark the kids with zeros for not having done the work. A bunch of parents got together and the teacher was fired. Fortunaltely I havent had school issues with my kids. Most teachers we have here are pretty darn good and also very communicative and genuinely want the kids to do well. They get paid very well for it too.

[soulthoughts]

Originally Posted by bhz1

...Fortunaltely I havent had school issues with my kids. Most teachers we have here are pretty darn good and also very communicative and genuinely want the kids to do well. They get paid very well for it too.

Me too. My kids have awesome teachers.

[IvanPK]

Honestly, having switched from lots of schools, and still being in High School, grades are not based solely upon the school, 90% is just Personal Responsibility of the Student...and 10% is the teacher's style of teaching...
Who know's, maybe I just have it easy or something... but when I didn't try, I didn't get good grades... and at that time, I honestly *didn't care* as much as I do now, even though I thought I did at the time. Other things were clouding my vision

Originally Posted by bhz1

You are absolutely correct that there are always 2 sides to a story and in many cases they are far apart. Ive seen both sides of the coin. Kids who truly do the right things and teachers that seem to have it out for a particular student. This happened to my sister as a teen and seems to have replayed with one of her daughters. Both of them are very quiet and shy and I believe this bothers some teachers. Just as kids can be bullies, so can adults. In teh case of my sister, I remember my parents going up to school and learning that my sister reminded her teacher of someone she disliked. Her daughter's teacher ended up being fired becasue she was just a total incompetant. She's lose the kids papers and assignments then mark the kids with zeros for not having done the work. A bunch of parents got together and the teacher was fired. Fortunaltely I havent had school issues with my kids. Most teachers we have here are pretty darn good and also very communicative and genuinely want the kids to do well. They get paid very well for it too.

I had a teacher like that last year, except she DIDN'T get fired, she still works there. What I learned was to print off 2 copies of an assignment, and keep one in your binder while handing the other one in to the teacher. Honestly, I had almost 10 different times when the teacher said, "you did not turn in this assignment" and I said, excuse me, I did, and I have an extra copy in my binder right here. (made with a copy machine).
Took some extra work but it didn't make my hard work f*cked up by a bad teacher.

[bruinsrme]

The teachers in out town go out of their way to help.
But most parents are quick to blame them for their kids not performing.

It's a tough job and teachers today face many more challenges than when I went to school.

Originally Posted by IvanPK

Honestly, having switched from lots of schools, and still being in High School, grades are not based solely upon the school, 90% is just Personal Responsibility of the Student...and 10% is the teacher's style of teaching...
Who know's, maybe I just have it easy or something... but when I didn't try, I didn't get good grades... and at that time, I honestly *didn't care* as much as I do now, even though I thought I did at the time. Other things were clouding my vision



I had a teacher like that last year, except she DIDN'T get fired, she still works there. What I learned was to print off 2 copies of an assignment, and keep one in your binder while handing the other one in to the teacher. Honestly, I had almost 10 different times when the teacher said, "you did not turn in this assignment" and I said, excuse me, I did, and I have an extra copy in my binder right here. (made with a copy machine).
Took some extra work but it didn't make my hard work f*cked up by a bad teacher.

That is actually a great practice. You will find out that will be needed in the working world as well.
it's amazing how emails get answered when you put yourself in the CC block. Never the BCC block.
To me the BCC block is a sneaky way of doing things.

[Chase817]

I'm not a parent, but that presentation looks pretty convincing...