How Many Heart Attacks Can One Have In A Week?

Last weekend, I had dinner with some friends. One of the men is the guidance counsellor at The Boy's new, interim, alternative school. I asked him when the last day for withdrawing from school is, without penalty. He said next Monday.

That sparked a conversation between The Boy and me at home. Since he barely attends class, and he's not doing well in his courses, and he has already been accepted at U of T, why not make a firm decision to either stay in and do well or withdraw. Right now, he's just wasting time. The Boy agreed that was a sensible thing to do. But before withdrawing, he wanted to confirm with U of T his status, i.e. that he will be receiving information in the Spring for re-enrollment.

Well, good thing he checked. U of T told The Boy they had not approved his deferral request. Reason? When they offered him acceptance, it was based on his first term Grade 12 marks last year. He had over 80 in every course. The condition for acceptance was that he successfully completed Grade 12. So if he had attended university in September, he would have been in regardless of how he did the remainder of the year.

As it turned out, he graded poorly in two courses the remainder of the year. They dropped to the 50's. So when he submitted a request for deferral, the university looked at his final grades and said based on these marks, we cannot accept you for next year. A letter was supposedly sent to advise The Boy of this. He cannot recall whether he received such a letter. The only thing for sure is, right now, he has not been accepted to any university for September 2009.

What to do now? The admissions officer had The Boy's file in front of him and advised that the university would not accept him at the downtown campus based on his current grades. However, if he raised the two 50's to 80's, there is a high likelihood he will be re-accepted, if he re-applied.

I had several conniptions on learning of this turn of events. What kind of a slacker is he?

I helped The Boy formulate a plan. He went to school the next day and talked to his teachers. If he applied himself in this second term of this semester and handed in extra assignments, can he still pull in grades in the 80's. The teachers said yes. If he shows up for class and handed in all the assignments, he's sure he would get over 80. If the quality of his work falls short, they can talk about extra assignments then. That was easy.

I had planned a trip to Orlando at the end of November with Mom and Sis. The Boy wants to come. But school must be the priority, I countered. He said during that week, his school is also on a field trip. He had not signed up for it. That means there will be two days of no school that week, so he might as well come with us to Orlando. But he will still miss three days of school. So I asked him to check with the teacher what would be covered that week and what assignments are due.

Back to school The Boy went and talked to the teacher. Oh I don't plan that far, said the teacher. No problem, you go to Orlando and we'll do whatever we need to do to make sure you get caught up and get the grades you need. What kind of a teacher is this?

Then The Boy whipped out his mid-term report card. It was abysmal:

Course.......Boy's Grade......Course Median
History..........45.............. 37
Philosophy.......55...............40
Biology..........11...............54

I think I am more appalled by the course median than The Boy's grades. What kind of a school is this?

Too bad I don't drink, otherwise, this is where I would turn to alcohol to numb my nerves.