Sometimes it can be a variety of reasons why your child isn’t reaching their potential in high school. Due to a nexus of factors, some students might not perform to their best ability at certain times. There are a lot of reasons for this which are best understood by trying to relate to what it was like to be in their shoes, and channelling your high school self.
During the progression of high school, there are a lot of things going on: the continually more difficult academic work, the need to seek larger amounts of independency to succeed, especially just the fact everyone is a teenager-it’s a cesspool of changing hormonal levels. A lot of students might feel like they’re not particularly good at certain subjects, while they’re a lot better at others, and come to inaccurate conclusions assuming that they’re an ‘English student’ or a ‘math student’. This hearsay doesn’t hold any pertinent factual evidence at all, and resultantly, all the students are doing is shifting the responsibility of improving their weak subject areas. This psychological shift allows them to excuse themselves from trying in a subject area, as now their genetic make-up is at fault for the poor grades in a certain subject or topic area, and not themselves. This is a large issue for a lot of high school students as they’re excusing themselves from actually putting the right foot forward with their work. As a parent, it’s imperative to notice why your child is succeeding in certain areas and not as much in others. Especially considering mathematics, as it does have a logical base and is always going to be right or wrong, everyone can be good at math. Students need to take control of their own education as well as increasing their responsibility for their own actions (or omissions); this is a skill which is excellent for them to learn during school and will be an asset after graduation as well.
Another negative attitude which some students consider is the peer pressure from their friends in school. Some students might drift toward or away from certain subjects just due to the societal hierarchy within the school itself. Due to the nature of school students to categorise themselves to some degree, they feel their implicit desires should match their particular social network’s interests. This can be quite troublesome when they’re moving away from a subject purely based on the fact that their friends think it’s an “uncool” subject. Further, sometimes students prevent themselves from succeeding too much in a particular subject because they feel it would be a threat to their standing in the social hierarchy at school and would make them less socially acceptable or “uncool”. Students need to come to terms that they can be both “cool” and socially desirable while also attaining high grades in school. It can be a great motivator to consider what the student is considering to do outside school, as the marks they might need could greatly affect their attitude. Further, a reward scheme for the student could be a great idea where they’re not wishing to pull their weight, whereby they would need to attain a certain level of results in a subject to receive some benefit to them.
Both of these psychological blocks can be broken down, and this can greatly help the student’s attitude to their academics and studies. If a student is positive in their approach to learning, they’re more likely to receive positive results.