The Underachiever’s October Surprise

“I promise I’ll do better this year. Just give me another chance and I’ll get good grades. Honest. Just wait and see, Ple-e-e-ase.” These are the frequently heard pleas of underachievers prior to the start of school called the “August promises.”

Parents love to hear these promises. They naively think that maybe, their bright child has reached a new level of maturity. Maybe, just maybe, he has reached a realization that studying, handing in his homework, and getting good grades are important for his future. Certainly they have repeatedly told him this for the last few years, and they keep hoping their underachiever is finally ready to live up to his potential. Unfortunately, many trusting parents will heed their child’s beseechments and then step back, taking a wait and see position.

Then comes the underachiever’s “October Surprise” – the report card. Once again his parents are chagrined to see C’s and D’s and notices that homework assignments haven’t been handed in. When they angrily confront their child, the parents usually hear the old excuses of “I thought I was doing better; they must have made a mistake, “or the dejected, quiet refrain of “I don’t know.”

The underachiever’s “October Surprise” is as predictable as Halloween. It’s the academic version of “trick or Treat.” I used to believe the underachiever’s surprise was primarily a reflection of his cleverness to lull his parents into a false sense of hope, thereby buying more time to coast along with minimal effort. But now, having lived through many, many Octobers, I can easily spot parental complicity in the “October Surprise” by their unconscious eagerness to be deceived. Parents desperately want to believe their child is going to do better, not only for his own sake, but also for their own. It takes a great deal of time and energy to check their child’s homework, quiz him for his exams, and to generally keep on top of his academic progress and school behavior. Sometimes we as parents choose to remain ignorant about how our child is doing in school because if we discover his is doing poorly, we are then faced with a dilemma. Either we can ignore it and let him limp along, or we can constructively intervene, which will demand a lot of time and energy. For the sake of our children, I hope parents will care enough to demand that their kids aim for and meet academic and behavioral standards commensurate with their abilities.

Some constructive November intervention steps, which have proven to be effective in helping underachievers achieve, include:

1. Parents uniting, working as a team, and recognizing their responsibility in education their children;

2. Contacting each of their child’s teachers and establishing a daily/weekly monitoring system where they immediately know how their child is doing on his homework, projects, quizzes, and test; and

3. Obtaining a schedule of future assignments and test so that they can initiate early preparation by having the child review his notes, teacher’ handouts, and questions at the end of the chapters.

Grades are a reflection of how hard and efficiently a child has organized and studied, not how bright he is. Grades do have meaning and should be valued.

Finally, parents of underachievers are encouraged to relax their supervision only after good academic performances, not promises. Working closely with your child at the beginning of each school year can make the “October Surprise” a well-deserved treat.

Reprint permission granted by INDY’S CHILD, INC. (November 1987)

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