I woke up this morning from a dream where I was frantically trying to get Rene into this college art class. …

Deep sigh …

Must be all the high-school/jr-high-school counseling I’ve been doing lately.

So why have I been playing high-school/jr-high-school counselor?

Well, because that’s just what moms do now. (You moms of juniors and seniors know what I’m talking about.)

Here’s what’s been on the agenda this spring:

• Attending “welcome night” in the grade school MPR to select Nate’s electives for junior high next year.
• Attending “open house” at the junior high for even more information and to figure out Nate’s electives. (Does he need a foreign language? What happens to when these trimester ones end? Will any of these put him behind in high school?).
• Selecting high school electives for Rene next year. (Why can’t she get an art class? Does that mean she can’t take an AP art? Do all colleges require 2 years of foreign language? Does Health count as an elective? What if she plays sports?)
• Overriding certain classes that Rene really wanted but didn’t get into. (Still trying to figure out the paperwork on this one.)
• Sending Ricky’s transcripts to the schools he applied to, along with SAT scores and such.
• Researching scholarship opportunities.

The thing that’s striking me through this entire spring is how much parents really need to be involved as de facto high school counselors. I mean, when we were all in high school, we had actual high school counselors. Our counselors met with us every semester, made sure we were taking the right courses, made sure we were passing them, helped us know what we needed for college, helped us know when to apply to colleges, found us scholarships if we needed them, sent our transcripts in for us, helped us apply to honors societies, etc. Our parents didn’t need to know all this stuff. Continue reading →