Torture your Teen This Summer
Skip the t-shirt and opt for this instead while visiting college campuses this summer
Families can save hundreds if not thousands of dollars in wasted tuition simply by visiting the campus bookstore not to buy a t-shirt of the “dream college” but to sit with the books, yet people don’t want to because it sounds well…..boring and their time is limited while on campus.
Making teens sit with the books and curriculum for their intended major is a necessary evil to determine if this is a subject they can delve into for YEARS if not DECADES to come. If this is a major they are interested in pursuing, something they want to sink 40 years of their life into, getting to look at a book about what they are CHOOSING to study should be intriguing, and dare I say, fun- even for the non reader to at least thumb through and think about topics they are discovering (or Youtube them) even if they don’t read the text word for word. If it is not, there may be a set of books there that is more intriguing and interesting to peruse.
Activity
Have teens sit at a college bookstore or library (your local college is fine) and look at the textbooks of the majors they are interested in. The table of contents is a great place to start. They can take some notes about topics they love, hate, or are worried about and watch videos or listen to podcasts about them later if that is their preferred learning style.
Another great variation of this is to also look at journal articles from professionals in their chosen field. What are they researching and does the student find it interesting and could see themselves wanting to read more about these professor’s research now or in the future, or even conducting their own some day in the field of choice?
One of my favorite set of books for students to pull off a shelf is the final examination for their field or the tests they need to take to get into grad school. When I was a biochem student (premed), if someone would have showed me the organic chemistry book in high school before I declared my major, I would not have pursued it, it was that intimidating and very different than my high school text books. If someone would have showed me the MCAT exam prep book I needed to study and pass in order to get to med school WOW……..I would have ran as fast as I could have the opposite direction.
I did this same exercise last year with my rising senior. I grabbed a text book mentioned in a syllabus of a BFA in musical theater and then pulled videos about each of the topics in the table of contents.
Meisner Technique
Stanislavsky System
Method Acting
Spolin Technique
Chekhov Technique
Classical Acting
etc.
Why? Because my daughter has been in musical theater since 2nd grade, the CTE pathway for theater at her high school for 4 years, and she has attended theater conferences but had only heard of one of these techniques. Maybe it is because we have not paid for “acting classes” or maybe it is because the people she has worked with don’t teach with these methods. Not sure, but if she went to college and takes acting classes, these are the types of things that she was going to be taught and we want to pay for classes learning the techniques she resonates with. Otherwise it is like going to college for dance and then taking all square dancing classes vs hip hop classes which might be a student’s true passion.
For some reason in all the musical theater pages I was in last year, no one talked about choosing schools based on what acting techniques were being taught and considering HOW their student wants to learn their craft. Their student could end up with a professor who loves Chekhov and thinks it is superior vs one who is fond of Meisner which resonates with the student better. At that point, the better school for the student is less about the “highest ranking”, “school with most hires right after graduation”, “most famous alumni”, etc. and more about what books are showing up in the bookstore that the professors are teaching from. Ultimately my daughter decided she isn’t ready to learn any of this right now as a creative and if and when she is, we will be sure to study all the techniques and find a school teaching from the text and theories she loves.
Save yourself thousands, time, and sanity by sitting in that bookstore as long as you need with your teens this summer………..to uncover what you may not know exists!