She Can Fail and Still Get Into College

I think the back-to-school shopping list is something you can get from many parents, but I think it's so crucial that I send my daughter back to school with the freedom to fail. Of course I don't want her to fail 11th grade, classes or even tests. What I am sending her back with is opportunities to implement what she has been taught. Then, if she chooses to take a short cut, she learns from natural consequences.

This summer she took a 6-week language course through the local city college online. She barely got each assignment done on time, staying up until the midnight deadline each week. She also did the bare minimum, getting assignments done, but not really attempting to "learn the language". She takes the final next week, and there's a good chance she won't be acing it! She currently has a 4.5 GPA. This grade could bring down her average, but that's okay.

I think that as parents of teens we can easily get caught up in the whole get-all-A's, do-college prep classes, apply-to-the-most-prestigious-schools mentality, as if this is what our parenting years was all leading up to. I am sending my daughter back to school with the freedom to learn from her mistakes. And, if that means she can't get into Stanford, I know she will be fine. She'll still get into a good college. And, by making and learning from her high school mistakes, she will carry that with her to her non-Stanford college and be a success there and anywhere else in life.

image courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/chrisgramly