Jay Matthews, an educational columnist for the Washington Post, outlined several positive tips for parents to help middle school students. The article titled, "Eight Subtle Ways to Prepare Middle Schoolers for College", was published on February 2, 2011 in the Washington Post and is available online here. He asked several college admissions and education experts about positive steps that middle-school parents can take. Mr. Matthews states in his article that "Some of the ideas don’t sound like college prep at all, but they are. If you help a preteen get ready for life, there will be some preparation for college in there somewhere."Here are his eight suggestions for parents:
1. Notice what they enjoy doing, and help them do more of it.
2. Make sure your child knows that B’s are fine in middle school and that fun is important.
3. Enroll them in Algebra I in the eighth grade.
4. Insist they develop some practical housework skills.
5. Flavor family trips with a bit of college atmosphere.
6. Encourage children who are curious about the world to take a foreign language.
7. Character counts. Encourage its development.
8. Do everything you can to encourage reading.
As you can see, some of the suggestions on the list are very general, while others appear very focused and specific. I think that many of the stated ideas are helpful suggestions but ultimately parents should be mindful not to take this list as a recipe for success. I tend to agree with the famous quote of Booker T. Washington, "Success is to measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome."
Source: http://ed.stanford.edu/in-the-media/8-subtle-ways-prepare-middle-schoolers-college
excerpt, edited
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