A Matter of Honor

Karen asks:

“How do you make the decision as to whether to give my son a grade of C with an honors credit, versus giving a grade of B without the honors?”

Karen,
I think your goal is to teach your son at his level. That means teach him so that he has success. It doesn’t matter what the course is, or what the book is. An honors program is the depth and extent of how far they take that course. Any course could be an honors course with a student who goes above and beyond. There is no shame in having a regular course. So I suppose, if it means a class without honors for him to be successful, then that’s what he should be doing in order to learn at his level.

We have a family motto: “never compare, someone always gets hurt.” I don’t think I would compare your children academically, even though they are in the same courses. Similar to you, I taught my children together for everything except math (and spelling when they were younger.) But I expected different results. My younger son always read more, my older son didn’t have to write as many pages on the assignments. Even though your children are working together in the same subjects, you can still vary what you expect of them.

One thing that I’ve noticed that IS often missing in homeschooling is the sense of where your child is academically among peers. Sometimes we know their faults so well (WAY too well!) that it’s difficult to see how they measure up in terms of grades. Grading can be as simple as “If they meet my high expectations, then it’s an A” to a much more complicated formula. Whatever you choose to do, I encourage you to not give a grade based on a test alone. Instead, try to think about everything your son does (papers, reading, discussion, speeches, whatever) and ask yourself if he met your expectations in those things. Give him credit for everything he does WELL, and not just things he doesn’t do well. I hope that makes sense!

If you would like to talk to me about it in detail, I would be glad to help. This is one of those items that can be best handled in a consultation. I have a series of handouts that I email to a client, and then we discuss them on the phone. But Karen, aren’t you in Washington? Because I’ll be covering this in my “Transcripts” speech at the Washington Homeschool Organization Convention in two weeks.

Hope this helps,

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