My parents made NO EFFORT to get me the help I needed, and it really hurt me.
I don’t blame them, but the facts are the facts. I was hurt by, the lack of attention they paid to my future. I had to figure life out on my own, and that difficult for a kid. When you are young you don’t have the answers, sometimes ANY OF THE ANSWERS.
My son is in high school now.
He’s bright, like I was at his age, but he’s doing much better than I did.
He’s a 10th grader, taking physics and trigonometry. I didn’t take physics or trig, AT ALL. Part of that was because my wife and I got pregnant with him during our junior year, but I wasn’t even on pace to take the courses.
Yay us! (sarcasm)
Where was the focus?
It was focused on basketball. I never made the team, and my then girlfriend.
My parents were focused on themselves, their divorce, money (or the lack thereof), and drinking (in-excess). Well there were a lot of things on the list of things they focused on, my growth and future weren’t listed.
So as I’m sitting here today, at the local Panera Bread, watching my son, sit with a tutor that I found on Craigslist, get help with his trigonometry assignments. I’m almost brought to tears, as I think of these opportunities missed when I was his age.
He’s working with a private tutor for $35 measly dollars. I say measly, not because it’s $35 bucks and I don’t think that’s a lot of money because it is. It’s actually an awesome hourly rate for this tutor. I’m saying it because it’s priceless to consider how this hour will help my son in the future.
- How much more productive will his time in school be for him?
- How much faster will her get through his homework and be able to spend more family time with us, before he shuffles off to college?
- How much less frustrating might he find math and where might he decide to go in life?
- How might his future be shaped if he continued to struggle?
These are the questions that can run through your head as a parent. These are the questions that I’m thinking of for myself and how I struggled with certain subjects in high school. I really lost focus and focused intently on my girlfriend, and basketball.
I’m sitting here, writing a totally separate blog post, and I’m looking at my son. I can’t help but notice what’s unfolding in front of me, as I look at my son work with this tutor from the corner of my eye.
He, my son, is nodding in understanding. He is taking copious notes. His brow is moving between states of furrowed, and relaxed. He’s moving through the material, piece by piece, and step-by-step. He’s moving from confusion (furrowed) to clarity (raised brows) repeatedly. He’s learning now.
When we leave here in 17 minutes, he will be better than when we came in. His C may move to a C+. Is that worth $35? I’d say so.
If you have children, or plan to. Spend $35 to get them the help they need. You don’t know where it could take them.
I’m hopeful for where this could take my son. I wonder where it could have taken me?
