To insist that drama is not a valid choice for GCSE's

[FaintlyBaffled]

....when the student in question has never expressed the faintest interest in the subject in nearly 14 years
DS has his heart set on taking GCSE drama. I maintain it's a bonkers choice given that his only acting experience to date was as a leaf in a school assembly in yr2.
To compound this, he is planning to give up a subject that has interested him since he was a toddler, as it falls in the same block as drama. He has a natural gift at this subject and has just received glowing reports in his most recent review.
I'm wary of opening hostilities over something that I can ultimately win in the short term (I have to sign the form to say I agree with his choices) but that he could win in the long term by flunking the subject. We've so far agreed not to do anything until we've discussed this in more detail with the school, but he's unusually truculent about the whole affair. AIBU to put my foot down and insist that he doesn't "waste" an option on this?

[DullAndOld]

well tbh if drama was not a 'valid' choice the school wouldn't be offering it.

I think you should back off because it is his choice, his exams.

If you don't 'let' him do it, he will be moaning all his life about how he wanted to do drama but his mum wouldn't let him.

Anyway tbh GCSE choices are not THAT important are they?

[OVienna]

Drama is great - DD is keen and I am gunning for it. Excellent boost to English for the analysis of texts, language arts, yes acting but also collaborative group work. Win, win, win. DT on the other hand....for us this is a hard swerve....

[Rachie1973]

YABU

You had your chance, you made your choices. Now it's his turn. If it turns out to be the wrong choice.... well he has years ahead of him to work it out.

2 of my girls took drama for pleasure. Both exceptionally academic. The older one is a qualified English/Drama secondary school teacher, just about to embark on a PHD.

The other one was very shy and drama taught her to speak out. She is going into Social Work.

So it has it's uses.

[Rachie1973]

Bluelady
Are parents now choosing their kids' GCSE options? How the world has changed.

Yup. I think perhaps parents really, really want the best for their kids but kind of lose sight of the goal.

[Penfold007]

My parents completely refused to allow me any say when choosing my options. I still bear a grudge, don't be that parent.

[caringdenise009]

Unless your child has specific goals for a levels and a degree, GCSE s really don't matter. It's just a question of them being interested enough to make an effort.

[PaperdollCartoon]

The confidence, public speaking and presentation skills learnt in drama will do him good whatever career he goes into. Soft skills are under appreciated at school but vital in the workplace. Let him do it.

[DottyDotAgain]

ds1 is very science-y and maths-y and had never shown the slightest bit of interest in doing drama at primary school or secondary school, but then chose to do it as a GCSE - his teachers and us were completely taken aback..! But I'm really pleased he chose it (and woodwork..!!) - they're both very different from his usual choice of subjects and he's really enjoyed them. He's now in year 11 and as he'll never do either drama or woodwork (aka resistant materials) again, I'm really pleased he's had that experience for two years. His A levels will be maths, further maths and economics () so why not do something different for GCSEs?

[InternetHoopJumper]

Someone suddenly showing such a dramatic (pun not intended) change in interests and abandoning something he was previously very passioned about sets off alarm bells, as far as I am concerned.

Why does he want to make this change? Has something happened?

[lljkk]

Drama & history are both essay heavy subjects.
Drama is, well...creative. And lots of group work so a bad experience if you don't have buddies doing it with you. That's why my DS who can ham it up with the best ran a mile. DS doesn't like tedious planning and isn't good at socialising.

DS also doesn't like disgorging tonnes & tonnes of written info (a reason in favour of drama).

[GU24Mum]

I get the point - I don't think you're saying that there's anything wrong with Drama as a subject - just that your DS seems to have stumbled on it a bit late in the day!

By contrast, my DD loves drama, goes to drama school for hours on Saturdays, takes Lamda exams....... but did not get a good part in the school play (cast list out today) so is now contemplating dropping it - equally illogical.

I guess you can't do much other than ask why he has decided that he doesn't fancy history and what appeals about the drama at least to try and work out what the reason is. Great if he's make a sensible decision - a bit more worrying (though probably impossible to do anything about) if he thinks he'll have more free time or for some other flaky reason.

[PleaseDontGoadTheToad]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but do you think it's possible that he wants to do drama because he thinks it will be a doss?

I did GCSE drama because I'd always enjoyed drama up until then but GCSE drama was a whole different ball game. It wasn't easy or a 'soft' option that I sometimes see it presented as but it was bloody tedious. There was a lot of essay writing, critical analysis of plays, lots of staying behind after school to rehearse scenes...

There were quite a few pisstakers in the class who had clearly only chosen drama because they thought it would be easy and an excuse to doss around.

In the end I ended up hating drama and I wish I'd chosen something else instead.

[BothersomeCrow]

You can do history A-level without GCSE. The amount they learn at GCSE he may well know already if he's been very interested for years.
He'll learn the essay-writing and analysis skills from either subject, so I'd just ensure he knows what's on the syllabus and leave it to him.

[MuseumOfCurry]

My son is taking a drama GCSE and I was a internally eye-rolling a bit about it (ever the accountant's daughter), but I thought it best to keep this to myself. Which I have.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

Dm refused to entertain anything that I might want to do.

I am dyslexic and struggle with English and any language.

Dm insisted I took French, German and Latin.

I failed them all.

[chipsandpeas]

im 40 and still remember making my standard grade choices, i picked subjects what my parents wanted me to do and i regret it

let him make his own choices, hes going to be studying them for 2 years, if drama sounds like fun then let him have a fun subject

[MuseumOfCurry]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but do you think it's possible that he wants to do drama because he thinks it will be a doss?

I suspect my son thought as much, but he's been disabused of this notion.

[ABypassRunsThroughIt]

OP, what does he want to do when he leaves school? Has he decided he wants to act and thinks maybe it would look good on his CV? Although even there, I am pretty sure one can study at a performing arts school age 16 without having drama GCSE?

[StellaHeyStella]

YABVU. It's GCSEs ffs, not his doctorate and I assume your DS has maths, English and sciences covered. Drama is a respected subject and will sit well among the other nine or ten he'll be taking.
I say pick your fights carefully.

[blackheartsgirl]

My mum chose mine back in 1991. Had to do the subjects she wanted me to do like business studies. Back then you had to choose a language but my mother said I was useless at languages..I wasn’t but she kicked off and made me take business studies because she wanted me to become a PA like her.

End result..I failed most of my GCSE’s because my confidence was a rock bottom. It’s been a pattern that’s been repeated all my life. I am very bitter that I couldn’t choose what I wanted to do.

[FaintlyBaffled]

Well, in the ultimate drip feed...
DS wants to be a teacher and history has indeed been mooted as one of the subjects of choice. I'm as certain as I can be at this point that he will go into teaching, what it is in doesn't overly concern me.
History is only being cast aside (I think) because of the clash with drama.

[southeastdweller]

Have you asked him why he wants to drop history in favour of drama?

I’m a bit annoyed that so many people are assuming he wants to do it because he feels it’ll be easy to study. No GCSE’s are easy these days.

[KittiesInsane]

Speaking as the (jaded) parent of two drama-obsessed teenagers, I think it might be a good thing if this is the only drama in his life.

I have just tried to referee a three-way clash of rehearsals for DD between her GCSE drama performance, an out-of-school musical happening imminently and a play happening next month, all of which Cannot Possibly Be Missed, so she'll be in somebody's bad books no matter what she does.

[YoloSwaggins]

Literally no-one cares about GCSEs.

You can do Art, Drama and PE and no uni will give a shit - they only care about A-Levels. Even then I know people who got onto Maths/Physics/Comp Sci degrees at top 10 unis having done Art/Textiles as their 3rd A-level.

[Zbag]

Yanbu. I wouldn't be overly keen on drama being taken as a subject.