My day was rainy, but pretty great too as my aunt and little cousin came down today to visit for my nana’s birthday at the end of this week. We’ve had rain on and off most of the day and had a mini storm as towards the evening came, but now all I’ve heard is rain, I also have my headphones on so it could be storming right now, who knows. I hope it’s not though! Anyways, my afternoon was pretty long and since the weather was very different from the last two days, my body wasn’t feeling right and I had to take pain medicine just before my mom went to bed tonight. I was thinking as my aunt and cousin were bringing stuff inside of my grandparent’s house earlier that they always bring over a lot of stuff. Even for two people this time around and it still looked like a lot for just the two of them, plus their dog Mila. Besides the fact that they packed an awful lot for three days and the other part is that my “little” cousin Tate, isn’t as little as we all remember him as, because over winter break we found out that he is taller than my sister and he just turned fourteen years old! Gosh, this boy makes me feel old every day! I know understand if my older cousins ever felt like that with my sister, my other cousin and I while we were growing up. Tate is also about to graduate middle school and go onto high school in the fall. So if his age didn’t make me feel elderly that certainly did.
However, the boy has been having trouble in two of his classes. According to him, he’s got A’s and C’s in the rest of his classes except for his Science and Language Arts classes. Something I think that basically bothered me the most was the fact that my nana was telling him that he needs to focus his attention on his studies than his video games. As much as I agree with this, why wasn’t his parents giving him this kind of talk? As I kept continuing to watch his facial reactions to what she was saying, it looked like they had or at least somebody had and he was losing interested in what she was saying. So I tried to keep him up to speed and tell him about my struggles in classes while I was in both middle and high schools. Surprisingly, I still remember about what I went through as the boys in different grades were my distraction. He’s addicted to his video games. When I was in 6th grade, it was pretty difficult for me to get a LOT of my classes. I had dyslexia so I was slow at different classes. When I was in elementary school, I was at the same pace but I had a hands-on aide, if I needed help with certain things, she helped me at times. Once I entered sixth grade, that basically ended for me. I was in regular classes. I barely got through my classes that year. I remember my mom bribing me with taking away money to let go to the dances that they sometimes held after school. I was making an F in Math and they were holding a Halloween dance and I only had a week to get my grades up. I did EVERYTHING in my power if I didn’t get what the teacher was talking about, I wanted to go to the dance. At the end of the week, my teacher called my mom and told her what approvement I was making and I got to go to the dance. I remember more about that journey than the actual dance.
When I entered seventh grade, I was put in IEP classes. I was put in special classes for Math and Language Arts, but my Science and History classes were regular classes. We have like eight classes in all for middle school, but yet I don’t remember the majority of them. I do remember getting better grades for both Math and Language Arts, but my Science class was bad. I barely passed both semesters. History class was all right, it wasn’t bad but yet it wasn’t good either. And then I entered eighth grade and I basically had the same thing, but I had a regular Math class. Bad idea to whoever came up with that. I did better in my classes, but my Science and Math classes sucked once again. I still don’t know how I passed those classes either. Somehow I did and made it to high school where everything was a lot more difficult for everybody! Even the IEP kids had it rough. I was on my IEP throughout high school and thank god for that! I still had my resource class that I used religiously but both freshman and sophomore years, weren’t that difficult. Junior year was bad grade wise. Outside of that was even worse. First day of Junior year I was put in Geometry and I had the new teacher that I actual knew, but I started crying because I did not understand anything she put up on the board. The second day it was the exact same, I had to be in another class or I’d fluke it by the third week in. The only way I had to get out of that class was if I changed my diploma. At the time, I was a Core-40 and my mom and I had to make the decision to change it. I was not happy with the class, so we changed it and I was put in Business Math instead. A lot people told me before I went in the class that it would be a lot easier. No, it wasn’t. I basically had an F in the class, the only reason why I passed it is because I actually tried.
Second semester, I did actually have a better time. I went back and forth between a D and a C in that class. Big difference and I was so relieved! When I started senior year, it was the first year in the last 11 years where I wasn’t required to take a Math class. It was so amazing! While I was in high school, I had troubles both History and Science too. As a sophomore, I took my first year of history which was called, “World History” and I like history, but keeping up with dates and sites were never my thing. So I got like a C in that class throughout the whole year. However, I’m happy to say that when I entered both US History and Government I passed those with flying colors! Another class I took during my sophomore year was Biology, that was mainly one of the easiest classes ever. And every person who got that teacher say the same thing. Trust me. My junior year I took ICP with another new teacher and he was really nice and I had some trouble in that class, but I think I did better second semester as we were discussing Physics that semester. That was another subject I didn’t have to take again in my senior year and I was glad because I knew there would be way in hell I’d gotten through Calculus either. So to end this, I know exactly what my cousin is going through, but I wasn’t wanting to play video games. I wanted to listen to music and watch TV instead. I was so lame in school. No wonder I didn’t have a boyfriend throughout high school, I was basically a damn nerd! When I started passing my free time with a book, you knew I was a goner from the start. And then when I did my Grammar class in my last year and started blogging, that took over the rest of my free time. I didn’t say it was a bad thing!
I think times have changed since I have been in school. It surprises me what educators think kids “need” to know. I was listening to the radio station a couple of months ago about what kind of words ten-year olds need to know how to spell. A lot of these words were huge and not what I was learning at that time. I remember when one of my home economics classes during my freshman year only taught us to do a Resume and how we would file our taxes once. Just ONCE! I still don’t know how to make a resume. I see how he’s losing focus but he’s also a boy, so I don’t understand why he wants to play his games all the time. I don’t remember how my older cousin Chris acted during his high school days. I do know he had the same struggles every kid does in school, but he still graduated high school though! I’m hoping Tate gets his grades back up and I hope if any middle and/or high schooler is reading this, if you’re having difficulties in your classes. Ask for help. It isn’t going to kill you or make you out of be dumb either, if you don’t get something then ask for some help. Plus, don’t get down on yourself either. I know it’s easier said than done. I’ve been there and done that too, but don’t give up so easily!
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