DP News: How to Help a Teenager Be College-Ready

A recent article in the New York Times, How to Help a Teenager Be College Ready (accessible at this link) focuses on how parents can support their children to develop personal responsibility skills. Mark MConville, the author, is a psychologist with over thirty years of experience working with adolescents and their parents. To make the successful transition from childhood to adulthood, students need to develop ownership of their lives in three broad areas: behavioral health, academics, and administrative tasks.

• Behavioral health responsibilities include: managing their own sleep times and wake up times, making healthy choices for how to fuel their bodies, and deciding when to sit down at a desk and get to work.
• Academic responsibilities include: caring about their education, knowing how and when to ask for help, and taking responsibility for their own levels of success. It might be hard for some parents to let go of these responsibilities and allow the students to accept these tasks. By grade 11 students should be initiating conversations with their teachers about areas they need extra support. By all means, students in grades 11 and 12 should not only attend parent teacher conferences, but should co-lead these conversations. Academic responsibilities also including taking notes, coming to class on time, studying for tests, or emailing a teacher if they miss a day of school and need clarification on an assignment.
• Administrative tasks include: keeping and maintaining their own calendar (which can be electronic or paper), meeting deadlines for classes, and filling out forms (such as registration for SAT and PSAT exams).
  

In order for students to be successful as independent adults in college and university, we must support and encourage the development of these skills in our 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students. The skills identified by the author closely align with the IB's Learner Profile and the Approaches to Learning. Within the AISL school day, teachers encourage students to effectively communicate, engage self-management skills, and be balanced.