ACE awareness for HS Counselors

[MNomadic]

I am really hoping to get my son to do at least the ones with no touchstones.  He’s only 15 and writing is not his strength.  I am even considering bribing him by offering like $10 per completed course or something.  We are already paying for Catholic High School.  If he could collect some college credits along the way, that would be great.  I think he could easily do the History, economics and environmental science ones, at least.   If we can continue to afford HS tuition, we will have paid about $40,000 into his education.  He gets no support there for his ADHD so his grades are all over the map.   I don’t think they will put him in an AP or CCP while he is there.

ACE credits like a Sophia class with a Touchstone could be a great way for him to practice his writing. he'll need writing for college and it's just a useful skill to have. He's likely to have several careers during his lifetime. One never knows what skills you may need in the future. 


I'm not surprised a high school counselor doesn't know anything about ACE. When I graduated from high school it took 3 people to figure out if I had enough credits! I had more than enough credits. The issue came down to did I have enough music credits to get my Regents diploma. It took them months to figure that out. I did end up getting the Regents diploma but it was meaningless outside of NY.

This. Writing is not my strength either but I work on it. I did some extra courses through Sophia to work on my writing. What better way than a low-stakes environment where "failing" or a low "grade" doesn't matter but passing can help you get closer to a degree? Not only will writing be imperative for college, but almost every job post I see mentions oral and written communication as being necessary skills. 


"Weaknesses only stay weaknesses when you don't actively work to strengthen them."

- MNomadic

I do agree with that for adults and maybe motivated typical teens.  But he is a HS Freshman with ADHD.  If I tried to toss something that involved MORE writing outside of school, he’d skip it entirely.   He still has plenty of time to work on writing.   At this point, I am looking at things he could easily tackle and get something out of it.   Overwhelming him would only set him up for failure.  Baby steps…. Baby steps…

True, baby steps are important.