My son's first year of high school turned into a bitter disappointment during the first semester. He is small for his age and chooses his own style when it comes to dressing. The school he attends is very "cliquish" and he does not fit in. He has a handful of friends and doesn't have any of them in most of his classes. My son is an avid skateboarder and dresses the part. The school he attends consists mostly of wealthier kids who support the preppy lifestyle. His grades immediately began to feel the effect of his altered status at his school. He began to find any excuse he could to stay home from school.
If I managed to get him out of the house and dropped off at school he would wait until I drove off and then walk home. My husband an I both work full-time and would not know of his absence until the school attendance office called. His absences became so frequent that I could no longer come up with excuses for him. My greatest fear was that my son was going to fail and get so far behind that he would never catch up, thus, crushing what was left of his self-esteem and possibly causing him to want to drop out indefinitely. I began to frantically search for a solution that would help my son and that is when I found out about distance learning.
I managed to get the help of the school counselor who was against the idea at first but with my convincing she agreed to help me find on-line classes for my son. He is completing the rest of this year on-line and I saw an immediate change in him already. He is up to date with all of his classes and his grades have improved dramatically. Although I agree that distance learning can be a great tool to keep kids in school, I do not think it should be an "easy way out" for kids that just don't want to go to school.
I had an agreement with my son that if we did this that next year he would go back to school with a clean slate and that he must adjust to the changes he has to encounter. He understands and frankly is looking forward to school next year because he will actually be slightly ahead in his school work. Hurray for distance learning!
