DS15 is so similar. This week's assignments of "what does the American dream mean to you, give a personal perspective" along with the multi-media "all about me" were a killer. I wonder if they share another trait? While he loves music and his private teachers, DS does not like being the focus of attention for 30-60 minutes. He changed to a piano teacher who, in addition to building on his particular skills, plays collaboratively with him. There's a lot of back-and-forth playing, duets, etc, and they have a lot of fun. DS is becoming a better musician, not just able to play difficult pieces.
In clarinet lessons, he has been ready to quit lessons for the same reason, too much focus on him. From time to time they play duets to his delight, so we talked with the teacher about incorporating that more into the lesson. She will! DS would even be open to a shared lesson, but the logistics of doing that at school are difficult.
DS also does not like to perform solo. He does piano recitals because they are required, but he will never take band as an honors course because you have to perform solos. He also doesn't want to compete, whether in music, academic teAms, etc. He even approached cross-country as "personal best", not a race.
Does your DS have similar difficulty? It seems to be related to the "revealing their inner selves" perhaps.
I think so.. It's one of the reasons DS likes band, marching band he doesn't have to be singled out. Our honors band doesn't require solo's. And DS's clarinet teacher does a lot of duets with my DS.
That essay would be a killer for my DS as well. Give a personal perspective even for something he cares about just about guarantees that he will write about 3 sentences. When writing his big end of year social studies project last year, when we got to that part I just told him to write a conclusion. Teacher took a few points off for that, but it made negligible difference in his overall grade so we didn't sweat it.
School starts next Tuesday, I find out who he has for teachers this afternoon. I am so not looking forward to school starting this year.
