AIBU to want my son to take 11 GCSEs?

Yellow certainly 14 is still a child and he still needs his parents advice and support and guidance of varying levels depending on the situation. You do have to tread carefully with teens though, rather than just lay down the law (when it is about things like this) or they are liable to do the opposite of what you want in order to exert their independence :)

He does not need his mum to decide how many or which extra, elective GCSEs above and beyond the "normal" number he takes. The OP has said she agrees with that, so that's OK

"Sensible advice" is different to making the decision for him though.

(I'm not too sure what you mean by 'playboy').

It's possibly slightly remiss to give up on sensible advice at the age of 14. DS2 (who is DC5) was a playboy right through from Y9 to Y11; it took a steady nerve to get him through. Nothing wrong with a bit of decent, if irritable (and irritating), parental advice.

I think you're both getting to the stage when you have to accept that your parenting of him as a child is coming to an end. You've done your best to instil good values in him (and you wanting him to have a strong work ethic seems to be the point here). Now I think you have to accept it'll be him making decisions about all of the important things in his life. In two years' time he could be 16, marrying and in a household of his own.

alreadytaken the same advice doesn't hold good for all students from all schools everywhere. Also, OP has already said that her DS is in the middle of Bronze and is intending to do Gold.

OP I'd tend to tell him that he'll be given a tough ride at any interviews, appropriate to his school, and that if he's serious about Medicine, he really needs to get some wind under his sails starting now. The fact that he wants to do Medicine is useful; I'd milk it myself. As I've said, I don't think the additional GCSE is hugely material - though RS is quite useful for Medicine - but the lemming like/ easy option approach is.

I wouldn't necessarily follow all the obvious tick boxes for work experience either, coming from where he does. It's arguable that getting a paid job in his holidays (it doesn't have to be doctor or hospital related at all), working alongside other people, will do more good in his position than anything else. I think don't be too obvious with work experience either: don't aim high/ no consultants!

Not only do I know about the nine taylors, I can ring Kent Trble Bob!

yes you are being unreasonable, it's his life and there is no compelling reason to intervene. 5 or 6 GCSEs isn't likely to be well regarded but 10 is enough.

Encourage him to consider other options than medicine but if he ultimately decides to try for that it's useful to start on voluntary work early. He isn't likely to find anything in a medical setting yet but he may be able to be a trolley dolly at 16 and possibly get good contacts for other work experience. He can do something teaching younger children and that would probably be more use for medicine than an 11th GCSE. He may as well do Duke of Edinburgh and can start on bronze soon. That has benefits for independence and organisation.

There are more ways to avoid him coasting than an extra GCSE.

I was interested when I read that. I was brought up-yes I come from that sort of family- to call him something like Hack-light. AF ( aka she wo is never wrong) shook my confidence- so I now neve call him anything. Mind you, I practically never did anyway...........

Hackloooy the best people call him.

We also all know that the nine tailors isn't about sewing.

Go figure. ;)

And I have a nodding acquaintance with Hakluyt.

Cerberus est in via.

Ah, but nit, at least you know about hubris and nemesis. And what skandaroons are. And all the words to fear no more. And how to translate lacrimae rerum.

So you win. :)

We didn't lose Texas because I didn't wear a big hat

bloody hell, I'm more confused than ever.

My 11 GCSEs are a case in point for quantity over quality, as they include Drama, Commerce and sociology. Would have been better to have done fewer but have two MFLS, which I wasn't allowed to do.

On the plus side, I did at one point know what a Bill of Lading was or is.

Inability to recognize west wing quotes will definitely hinder your career where I work. Oh yes. Much more so than whether or not you have triple or double science at GCSE.

No seeker, I was quoting the west wing. Does nobody here have a cultural hinterland?

The Latin tag is actually disputing that just because something came after something else it must have been because of it. :) Everything I know I learned from Jed Bartlet (we certainly didn't cover tags such as that in my Latin O level. It was all Caecilius and Grumio in the culina with the lead piping providing hot water to all the rooms).

I only have 10 O levels and only one of them is a science. Clearly I am shtako for brains. :(

Propter- not prompter.

IPad has no O levels!

No-

Cum hoc ergo prompter hoc.

I was with you until propter! And I did 11 GCSEs too!

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Actually, just making sure that everyone leaves school knowing that (and why) correlation does not equal causation and the plural of anecdote is not data would make the world a better place.

Seeker - I agree with you that people need to understand, oh god, so many things, not just what they are being told, but what they are not being told, what they can see......They also need to be able to communicate. IME science subjects, at either GCSE or A level or indeed at degree level are not the best training in communicating, and they are no better at providing analytical skills than subjects such as history or English. 'Scientists' (using the term to mean people with GCSE or A level science qualifications rather than Tim Berners Lee) are no more and no less likely than any other person with a similar level of education to be gulled or otherwise taken in by any number of false orthodoxies. As we can see in this thread.

I have been privileged to meet many highly intelligent people from all over the world both while at Cambridge and in my subsequent career. The best minds I have met have been the history graduates. Without a doubt.

I think it's adults who need to be forced to understand probability... It infuriates me every time I hear the infinite monkeys/typewriters/Shakespeare thing being trotted out as though it offers any sort of comment on monkeys or shakespeare!