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Secondary education

DD does not want to be seen as a "geek" if she does her homework/ask questions!

3 replies

pinkbubble · 03/09/2008 22:31

DD has just started YR10. Average child, if she finds something interesting then she works really well and gets really good results.
However, she finds an awful lot of things "boring" at school SO Hardly makes an effort.

She has also told me on many occassions she does not want to be seen as a "geek". She does not want to be seen as someone who puts her hand up in class, does her homework and hands it in on time. She really thinks she will lose face!

I have tried really hard explaining to her that she will not always be these friends, and she is gradually running out of time, and needs to stop messing about and crack down.

Its really odd, but DD has only been like this since the beginning of Secondary School, before that she hardly said BOO to a goose!

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scaryteacher · 04/09/2008 08:34

Tell her that she is practicing life skills for the work place. She will be out of a job if she doesn't do her paid work to a required standard and to deadlines.

In Year 10, I stopped asking them to put their hands up, I directed questions specifically to the students by name, and picked on them all equally.

If she wants to go to Uni she has to buckle down. Unis now look at GCSE grades as well as A level grades when offering places, and if she has a 8 As and 1B and the next candidate has an 9As, then your lass will lose out.

The other approach I used to find worked in some cases, was to point out that they could laze now and then spend their 20s trying to catch up academically and professionally, or they could knuckle down and enjoy life later. After all, who wants to be the one at sixth form college doing GCSE retakes when their mates are doing A levels?

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Freckle · 04/09/2008 09:21

DS1 has this and he's at a grammar school where they are all relatively bright and should, in theory, all be keen to work and get on. Even DS1 refers to a couple of boys in his class as geeks, because they knuckle down. DS1 works hard and gets good results, but I do wonder if he could do better if only he wasn't concerned about being treated the same way.

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pinkbubble · 05/09/2008 20:24

Thanks for the responses.

DD and I sat last night and had a chat! Explained to her would she rather knuckle down now, get decent quals etc now, or when everyone is out enjoying themselves in their early 20's she will probably studying hard.

Lets see over the next few weeks and see how she improves.!

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