I have a son, 8th grader (13) who’s very smart. He wants to either become an oncologist, a pharmaceutical researcher, a medical toxicologist, he’s always had a deep passion for science. He’s always reading and learning ahead, he’s been studying for the MCAT and has mastered all of organic chemistry/anatomy and physiology/genetics and has been working on independent research projects regarding AI and Chat GPT with the help of a nearby hospital that he reached out to.
But the one thing that pisses me off is his complete disregard for social studies. In 5th grade, he tested for all 4 GT classes (gifted and talented) but forced me to email the school to override him into On Grade social studies. He says he loves math, science and English and that all of them are important and have useful applications but sees zero usefulness in taking an advanced social studies class, and he says on grade classes literally teach you anyways so he’s going to learn basic foundational knowledge and that’s what matters. He says he plans on doing sports teams, hospital volunteering/shadowing and research projects, lots of extracurriculars, and he wants time to have fun, so doing the easy class for an "unimportant" subject gives him more time.
In 8th grade, he has consistent As in all his math, science and English advanced classes, but has a C in REGULAR US History because he never tells us about exams, says he doesn’t study for them at all and says he just wants to pass and a D will do. He said in high school, he’ll make sure to put in minimal studying to get an A where he also plans to do on grade level. It’s worse because in high school, there are 3 levels, GT, Honors and Regular and he plans to do the bottom.
Look, I hate this attitude of his. I don’t like how he completely disregards one subject because "it’s useless" and puts in absolutely zero effort/interest. I told him I’m going to make him do GT because I know he’s smart, and now he’s complaining saying he won’t and I can’t make him. I’m worried about grounding him or getting him in trouble because i know it will just escalate him but I’ve never seen such a horrible attitude.
AITA?
NTA.
I am MENSA level smart, and all my life been pushed to STEM studies. Social Studies was something I actually reference every single day. History. Geography. Civics. SO many things that I have to remind people of every damn day on the internet.
NTA. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Just look at what’s happening in the world today, and look back. The context of what is happening matters. And you need knowledge of history in order to be able to understand that.
NTA. Your son’s dogmatic disdain for history is…bizarre to say the least. You need to get to the bottom of it because my gut says there’s something more at play than just not liking a subject.
YTA. Your 13 year old can’t “force” you to send an email. You’re enabling his bad attitude by allowing him to take on grade social studies. Be the adult, calmly explain some benefits of the subject, and don’t give in to tantrums. If he won’t do the work, he’ll fail and medical schools won’t look favorable on a kid with a poor GPA.
NTA, but hovering. I have 4 grown kids and you can’t change things like motivation / “this is a waste of time”, even if it means they don’t wind up where you’d hoped. But if you think it’s putting in jeopardy the future that he wants for himself, explain the mechanics of that very clearly.
NTA for being concerned about his lack of effort & care towards Social Studies courses. Even if he doesn’t care for the subject matter, he should still want to do well in the classes. That being said, you’d be an AH if you “force” him to take a higher level of courses when he doesn’t want to. Doing that will just lead him to hate the subjects even more and he’ll probably do poorly in them just to spite you.
> but forced me to email the school to override him into On Grade social studies.
You let you child tell you what to do? My kid isn’t going to force me to do shit.
He ‘forced you’ to email the school for him? Interesting
>but forced me to email the school
YTA for letting a 13-year-old “force” you to do anything. He has a shitty attitude because he knows he can push you around and get away with it. Do better.
Maybe try helping to understand that the subjects he doesn’t care about will help him to be a fully rounded person. A person without social studies can be myopic
NTA. He’s 13 and too young to understand the importance of a class like social studies. But he should at MINIMUM be doing well in a grade-level class.
I would tell him if he doesn’t get an A or B in whatever class he’s in, you’re going to assign him a weekly paper on a current-events topic so he can at least understand what’s going on around him. Explain that he doesn’t get to hide away in a lab or doctor’s office as an adult and not care at all about the world around him, and that he probably won’t even want to do that.
You can also explain that there may be classes he’ll have to take in high school and college that he’s also not interested in, but if he doesn’t do well in them, he can kiss med school goodbye. And there will be parts of college, med school, and professional life that he won’t be fully interested in, but he won’t just get to slack off like he’s doing now. So developing the discipline to do well in social studies now will actually HELP him meet his goals later.
Ninja your kid is 13, why the fook does he even know what the MCAT is. YTA, get that kid an Xbox and let him be a child
Part of the problem that we are experiencing here in the United States is the complete ignorance of so many in the area of civics and social studies. We are seeing the consequences of that ignorance. It’s great that your son is interested in science but history is what has shaped us and it is up to you to let him know how important it is. Even science is rooted in history. NTA!
NAH.
Is history useless? I’m not going to name particulars in this forum but we’re currently living what happens when history is disregarded, it repeats.
Plus those wars had an impact on medicine. The first blood transfusion was performed in an active war zone on the battlefield.
There’s also points of history that include historical figures in medicine.
Alexander Fleming (discovered penicillin), Joseph Lister (invented aseptic techniques), Frederick Banting and Charles Best (discovered insulin). Who was the first black surgeon to perform open heart surgery?
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, in 1893. He also founded Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first black owned and operated interracial hospital.
Medical history exists for a very important reason: to understand how we’ve learned by today, how the discoveries were made and why there’s rules and regulations regarding medical experiments. There are at least equal, if not more, medical failures in the history of medicine for each success.
If he knows what others have done and how, he’ll be better prepared for when he’s researching.
Lastly if he’s hoping to get an academic scholarship, he’ll be more likely to receive one if he has at least average classes and gets a 4.0 GPA, because they don’t just look at the classes you need for medical school, they look at everything.
And while I do get where you’re coming from part of this might just stem from him wanting to blow off steam with his friends now and then. Maybe he could have 30 minutes to play online once his homework is done?
Obviously I don’t know exactly how things operate in your home I’m just making general suggestions