Preparing for College Success
Many high schools host college and career fairs where seniors, juniors, and their parents wander from station to station looking for information that will help them make decisions. But while they are looking for specific academic requirements, and scholarship and financial aid information, those parents hopefully have long been preparing their teenagers for success in college. In fact, college success depends on much more than academic success. The skills that teenagers need to successfully maneuver new freedoms, new responsibilities, and new situations that they will face in college need to be honed at home long before mom and dad wave goodbye from a dorm parking lot.
Whether you have a high school senior, a freshman, or even a middle schooler, parents who expect their child to go on to higher education need to prepare those students to be successful in college while they are still living at home. If parents really want their students to successfully maneuver all the temptations of parties, late nights, and skipping classes while culling a college education, a degree, and the beginning of a promising career, they need to start preparing their teenagers long before the end of high school.
Academics, of course, are crucial. Being able to properly research a topic, use correct citation, and organize a well-written paper takes academic skills; but parents need to realize that if a student can’t get herself up-or even get motivated to try- in time to make it to a class where she is one of 300, to listen to a lecture on a subject she doesn’t like but is required to take, where roll is not taken and nobody checks to see why she isn’t there-that takes more than academic skills. It takes some training, some dedication, and a student who sincerely wants and understands the value and cost of that college education to be successful.
11 Tips For College Students
I’m not currently a college student. Haven’t been one for awhile…at least in the undergraduate sense of things. But I hang out with college students. I work with college students. And I work full time at a University as the Director of Campus Life (the coolest on-campus job in the world).
Plus…I really like college students.
It’s one of the greatest times in life. When do any of us ever get to hang out with hundreds of friends for four, five…dare I say…six years? It’s like going to camp..except they give you homework and you have to read 800 pages a night.
So if I could sit you down, with a slow drip of coffee being shared between us (intravenously or by the cupful if you prefer), and share some ways that I believe you could not only make the most of your time in college, but really, really enjoy it and succeed at it – here’s what I’d say…
1. Meet people.
One day you’ll walk across a stage, and a very smart looking man or woman in a really nice, long, black gown will hand you a piece of paper that says “Bachelor” (even if you’re a girl!) on it. You’ll graduate from college. Do you know what you’ll remember most?
The relationships you’ve made.
My advice is to meet everyone you can. Be friendly. Smile. Talk to people (not in class…that could be dangerous). Go to places where people hang out and hang out with them. Your friends are what make college special.
Some day you’ll come back to campus as an alumni and the place will feel weird. It will feel different. That’s because all of the people that you were friends with during your college years aren’t there. It’s the same college, but different people. It’s the people that make your experience unique. You are going to make friends that you’ll have for the rest of your life.
Plan Ahead For Kindergarten Registration
It is that time of year again. If you child is already 5 or will be turning 5 on or before Oct. 1 (date depends on your state then it is time to start thinking about registering your child for kindergarten. There are several steps involved in the kindergarten registration process.
If you are unfamiliar with the process then it is a good idea to call the elementary or primary school your child will attend for more information. If you are not certain which school your child will attend then call the school district’s main office.
While registration is free there are some costs associated with kindergarten registration. Your child will need a current physical (often documented on the state’s medical exam form) and will need to be current on all vaccinations. Your child will also need a current eye exam (often documented on a state eye exam form).
Most schools also require a birth certificate and social security number.
Some schools require these five documents at the time of registration:
~ Birth certificate
~ Social security card
~ Current immunization record (on state certificate)
~ Current physical record (on state medical exam form)
~ Current eye exam (on state eye exam form)
Other schools are more flexible and allow registration with only some of the forms as long as all other information is provided by the time school starts.
Once your child is registered then your child will be scheduled for a kindergarten screening in most school districts. The screening is conducted by one or more professional educators.
The purpose of the kindergarten screening is not to determine whether or not your child will be admitted to kindergarten but rather how your child’s unique needs will be met in the coming school year. This means matching the right teacher, classroom, and program to your child.
Why Public Schools Hate Home-schooling Parents
Home-schooling is a great success. That’s why many public-school authorities hate home-schooling parents.
Home-schoolers are a direct challenge to the public-school monopoly. This monopoly makes it almost impossible to fire tenured public-school teachers or principals. As a result, tenure gives most teachers life-time guaranteed jobs. They get this incredible benefit only because public schools have a lock on our children’s education.
If public-school employees had to work for private schools and compete for their jobs in the real world, they would lose their security-blanket tenure. That’s why school authorities view home-schooling parents who challenge their monopoly as a serious threat.
Many school officials also can’t stand the fact that average parents who never went to college give their kids a better education than so-called public-school experts. Successful home-schooling parents therefore humiliate the failed public schools by comparison.
Home-schooling parents also humiliate school authorities who claim that only certified or licensed teachers are qualified to teach children. Most home-schooling parents thankfully never stepped foot inside a so-called teacher college or university department of education. Yet these parents give their children a superior education compared to public-school educated kids.
Also, many public-school officials resent home-schoolers because the typical public school loses about $7500 a year in tax money for each child that leaves the system. Tax money is the life blood of the public-school system. Tax money pays for public-school employees’ generous salaries, benefits, and pensions. Is it any wonder why school authorities don’t want to lose their gravy train?
For these reasons, until fairly recently, most state legislatures either outlawed homeschooling or tried to strangle it to death with regulations. In 1980, only Utah, Ohio, and Nevada officially recognized parents’ rights to homeschool their children. In most other states, legislators continually harassed or prosecuted home-schoolers under criminal truancy laws and educational neglect charges.