Mother Takes the SAT 7 Times to Help Her Son Get into College
Mind you, she didn’t take the SAT for him, she claims she was trying to help motivate him.
The mother is Debbie Stier and she wrote about her experience in The Atlantic. There are a few choice excerpts below.
I Took the SAT 7 Times to Help My Son Get Into College
Ethan’s disability is what I’d describe as a mild case of garden-variety ADHD, the kind without the behavior problems. Ethan’s an easy-going kid: he’s happy-go-lucky but disorganized, and was in need a lot of “re-focusing” during those early years in school. (To my mind, ADHD is what we used to call “boys.” Now we have treatment for the condition and legally-required “accommodations” at school.)…
By the end of Ethan’s sophomore year, heading into the all-important junior year, I had a son with a B average, taking non-Honors courses and not excelling in extracurriculars (though he is a very good piano player).
I had seen more studying going on during those first two years of high school, but there was a lot of convalescing, too, not to mention the socializing and the video games. Ethan was a “normal” kid who got B’s and C’s, not one of the stressed-out strivers you read about….
I was beginning to feel frantic, which is why I started poking around the SAT. The test seemed to offer a last-ditch effort to turn things around.
Somewhere in that search, I read an article about SAT scores and merit aid. “High scores = money.” That was the gist.
A possibility presented itself. Ethan could study for the SAT, earn high scores, and get a scholarship at a decent school somewhere.
Of course, most of the people I knew in my small town hated the idea that I planned to train my son to get top SAT scores, but what choice did I have, really? I feared for my son’s future. The fact that I had managed to succeed despite mediocre grades was irrelevant. Those were kinder, gentler times.
So I cooked up a plan that took on a life of its own: I decided to take the SAT, too. I thought maybe I could motivate Ethan to care about the SAT, just a little, if I climbed into the trenches myself.
Comments
The mother should have spent her energy to help her son to find where he can be successful and not to set him up to fail by misrepresenting his abilities on the SAT. Did she plan on getting the degree and a job for him so that he would have money? What she did do is to show that her son wasn’t capable of being a success. The more she does for him the less he will do for himself. We have a POTUS with that same affliction, hence the sealed records and grades.
what ? does she plan to carry him through life. get real woman. not everyone needs to go to college.
I went to university but that was only to pick-up my brother ..he didn’t have a car and I did, I worked for a living.