My son is trying to find a reasonable way to tell me he's dropping out of school. From my perspective, it looks like little homework is happening. There are very few intense studying sessions. All the classes and work are on the laptop - happening in a Google doc right next to the one with the latest multiplayer game he and his buddies tab into when the lecture doesn't require their immediate participation. Yet, how is this different than what I was doing at 17?
The first day in his knew home, he's awaken by what sounds like "Fire! Fire! Run. Run!" Startled he jolts upright and looks around. The two brothers of the family were sound asleep. The mother was running into wake up one of them. Turns out he was going to be late school. She wasn't yelling Fire! She was yelling. Wake up.
Three weeks into my new school situation, I didn't speak enough of the language to answer a single question. No teachers were calling on me because none of them spoke English. Looking back, I doubt any of them were even informed I was a student there. It was a private school. They were getting paid. I'm sure they didn't care much why I was taking up an empty seat.
The Monday of week four rolled around and without consultation, I made a decision. The inputs for my decision were simple: Sitting around doing nothing in a classroom was not helping me. Sitting around on the beach would be nicer. School was seven blocks away. The beach was across the street. That morning, without a word, I awoke, put on my new bathing suit and threw a towel over my shoulder. At breakfast, I'm sure they were asking me why I wasn't going to school. If they were, I didn't know it. I went to the beach.
After a few months of adaptation to the new language, I went back to school. I made many friends and enjoyed it immensely. My son is not really dropping out of school but is conflicted with the whole idea of it. He feels clear that he wants to be a rock climber, work at any available job, and have a simple life. There are even films made these days that describe how nice a life can be. I confirmed that while he may be passing on some of the assigned homework - the thinking he's doing about life and effort and tradeoffs and social responsibilities is also work — and that is the 'work' he is doing. I started making clear decisions at 17 and, I guess, so has he.
The first day in his knew home, he's awaken by what sounds like "Fire! Fire! Run. Run!" Startled he jolts upright and looks around. The two brothers of the family were sound asleep. The mother was running into wake up one of them. Turns out he was going to be late school. She wasn't yelling Fire! She was yelling. Wake up.
Three weeks into my new school situation, I didn't speak enough of the language to answer a single question. No teachers were calling on me because none of them spoke English. Looking back, I doubt any of them were even informed I was a student there. It was a private school. They were getting paid. I'm sure they didn't care much why I was taking up an empty seat.
The Monday of week four rolled around and without consultation, I made a decision. The inputs for my decision were simple: Sitting around doing nothing in a classroom was not helping me. Sitting around on the beach would be nicer. School was seven blocks away. The beach was across the street. That morning, without a word, I awoke, put on my new bathing suit and threw a towel over my shoulder. At breakfast, I'm sure they were asking me why I wasn't going to school. If they were, I didn't know it. I went to the beach.
After a few months of adaptation to the new language, I went back to school. I made many friends and enjoyed it immensely. My son is not really dropping out of school but is conflicted with the whole idea of it. He feels clear that he wants to be a rock climber, work at any available job, and have a simple life. There are even films made these days that describe how nice a life can be. I confirmed that while he may be passing on some of the assigned homework - the thinking he's doing about life and effort and tradeoffs and social responsibilities is also work — and that is the 'work' he is doing. I started making clear decisions at 17 and, I guess, so has he.
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