Affirmative Action

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
Sorry for yet another post, but PM must have been typing her's while I was doing my last...

For the most part, I agree. Parental support can be among the most important parts of a student's academic career.

On the other hand, the student also has to be self motivated. Both of us went to EVERYTHING in which any of our three were involved.

Our oldest graduated HS with high academic honors and Summa Cum Laude (I'm never sure how to spell that) from college.

Our youngest is a National Merit Scholar and finished his Freshman year in college with a 4.0.

Our middle -- well, we weren't sure until the final day of high school that she would graduate. She didn't go to college, and probably would have been a disaster if she had.

So, yet again, you just can't make blanket ascessments.

DeltAlum -- when I made my post about the importance of factors other than motivation, I wasn't just addressing parental support, but also peer support and teacher support. Parental support is a strong factor, but peer support is probably almost as important, and the support of teachers factors in to a lesser degree.

Part of what I had going for me was the fact that my parents always stressed how important education was, and how important doing my best was -- but it was also very dependent on the fact that I was mostly friends with kids who did well in school, prized education, wanted to go onto college, and participated in extracurriculars.