Zteen started his college classes yesterday at the local community college. He was more than a little nervous about it, being a home-schooled kid and all. After all, it's the first time in 13 years he has walked into a classroom as a student.
We dug out the photo albums and looked at his "first day of school" pictures from kindergarten and first grade. I tried every way I could think of to get him to let me take a picture of him leaving for college that looked like his kindergarten picture. I thought it would be cute to have a picture of Zteen at 5 and Zteen at 19, going off to school. But it was a no go. I even teased him: "Had I thought of it in time, I would have gotten you a Chicago Bulls t-shirt to wear on your first day of college--to mirror the Bulls shirt you wore when you were 5."
He just said he was glad that I didn't think of it in time.
Huummmmph.
He's taking 12 hours this first semester--but the only class that really "got started" in his opinion was his film appreciation class. I'm not surprised by that. They only meet once a week, for four hours, so there's time to see a complete film. Skipping the first day would be like missing a whole week in the other classes. They started off by watching Casablanca. Next week they watch Pulp Fiction (a movie I consider one of the most awful I've ever seen!). But it will be a complete contrast in directorial styles.
The only class he's worried about is Composition I. His teacher is, I think, trying to scare them into doing things her way (a worthy goal, in my opinion, for this class). She has a 50% retention rate--so she told them to "....Look around. Half of you won't be here by drop day." Her reputation, though, is not nearly so fierce--if you want to work, she'll do everything in her power to work with you. If you don't want to work--get out. That seems more than fair to me.
We'll see how it goes. Zteen had homework last night for the first time in MONTHS. But the math was easy enough, and the other reading he just has to get mushing on. He's never had to balance school and a job before. But he does best when he really has to concentrate--so I think, in the end, it will work better for him than having unlimited outside time to mess around with.
We'll see.
I cannot, simply cannot, believe that I am the mother of a college student. But then, in a few months I will have to come up with a new name for Zteen--because he'll no longer actually be a teen.
Wow.
howabout the Zman?
My friend's mother works in admissions at a community college. She says she can pick out the homeschooled teenagers at twenty paces. They're the ones who show up on time, have all their forms correctly filled out, are decently dressed, and can speak to an adult without mumbling, shifting their eyes all over the place, or saying "like" and "Yuhknowatuhmean?" every third word.