Parent/Teacher meeting

Yesterday I had a parent/teacher conference.  During that meeting, I also met with the high school guidance counselor to set up Jonathan's electives for the upcoming school year.

The meeting started up on a VERY good note.  One of Jon's teachers stated "I wish I had a whole school full of kids like your son."  What a compliment!  I know I blushed a bit because Jon teased me about it later.

During the meeting it was revealed that Jon is above average in all of his testing scores, so they plan to place in him all advanced courses.  The high school here does things a bit differently than the high school I went to.  Rather than eight class periods, there are four - each period lasts for approximately two hours.  Rather than having two semesters of school per year, they have four quarters, so he will be getting the same amount of education but in a different format.

Once I got used to the concept, I found I rather liked it.  I remember numerous times in my own high school years where I was just starting to really grasp a subject, to get into it and understand it on an instinctive level, and then the bell would ring.  I would have to wrench myself out of that mindset and move on to a completely different class, and then struggle to fit my mind into a new mindset - say, a science mindset.  And then, as soon as I got comfortable - BAM!  The bell would ring again and I would have to go on to English Lit.

Having the class periods being twice as long solves that problem.  Also, with only four subjects to juggle instead of eight, Jon will have an easier time understanding each subject.  And the school offers free tutoring after school and on weekends, so if he is struggling, he can get tutoring without having to pay for it.

Jon has decided that the four electives he wants to take are Intro to Production Tech (woodworking), Intro to Welding, Intro to Auto Mechanics, and Spanish (most of those subjects will help him build that Tumbleweed Tiny Home that he's been dreaming of).  Also, he wants to get some of his electives out of the way in advance, so he is going to take Intro to Computers over the summer.

I also found out that Jonathan has been spending his Friday lunch period playing chess with the coach for cross country.  Evidently they play in the lunchroom and have attracted quite a crowd of students who root for Jon the beat the teacher.  Because of this, Jon has gotten a reputation in his school for being the "go-to" guy when you have trouble with studies, and several students have asked him to help them understand classwork.  He's starting to finally develop a social life in school!  He's always struggled with that, never having more than one close friend at a time, so I'm glad he's learning to socialize with a wider group of people.

I'm really proud of him - he buckled down this year and has shown the potential that I always knew was there.  He's got the whole world ahead of him and if he keeps up the good work, he can probably get a scholarship to pay for part of college.