How can I help my daughter......she hates History and English, both are needed for high school graduation.?

Answer 1

Explain to her that part of being an adult involves doing things that you have to do in order to do things that you want to do. You can empathize with her and say that you understand why she doesn't like all her school subjects, but make sure SHE understands that she is only hurting herself by not applying herself in history and English. Also, if she plans on going to college she'll have to take even more history and English, so she needs to get used to it now. There's no way you can make her like those subjects if she doesn't want to, but you may get her to the point where she tolerates them.

Answer 2

Try to find out why she hates them so much. Both English and History are reading intensive and require more time on task concentration (and memorization as is the case with History). Sometimes an underlying learning disability or attention deficit disorder is the cause of hating these subjects so much. Often students at this age hate the subjects they find the most difficult. I would think about having her evaluated at the school or at an outside organization. If there is no underlying cause, a tutor could be helpful. Also, trips to the library where both of you can select some good literature she likes, both fictional (English) and non-fictional (History).

Answer 3

I never enjoyed history and English when I was in school. However, getting the highest marks in English wasn't that much of a problem because I enjoyed English music, movies and at least one fiction author (Dean Koontz). So maybe steering your daughter to stuff she enjoys that are in English would help. Oh--and I also hated magazines and newspapers.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage a decent mark for history. I didn't like it, don't see it as being important or relevant, and the teachers were of no help whatsoever. It was dead boring. And everything about history is dead people. However, growing up to like business, finance and management and end up being some sort of a practitioner, I cannot help to now say.. history is very significant to anybody who wants to lead. In business, it is about people, markets, products and technology. All of these different element has its own history which if you have little appreciation of means you won't ever succeed in business. You'll make the mistakes others have made in the past and lose money, time and trust doing so. Strong appreciation of business history helps decision making and is definitely a differentiator.

Bottom-line for history is: I don't know how to make it interesting for young people. I come to love history through self-realization that it's very important for me to know a lot of, for me to succeed in life and work.

Answer 4

Try to make it relevant to whatever she IS interested in...relevant to today...tell her some of the quirky things about history (e.g., Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy, Kennedy's was named Lincoln) etc. If she's into hip hop, explore the history of music, rhythm and blues, gospel, and keep going back, and add in what was going on at the time (Pat Boone could sing a Little Richard song, but not vice versa). Things like that got my kids interested, and they both became political history hounds.

English? My daughter majors in English Education in college, and I think it's because I used to use a lot of synonyms when she was little (e.g., instead of saying I'm kidding, I'd tell her I'm being facetious, and she'd want to know what that meant) and she was fascinated that there were so many different words for the same thing, and then she couldn't get enough of reading.

Answer 5

Well you obviously have to get her to take them just so she graduates... and unforunatly she will have to take some form of them again in college. I actually enjoyed history. You need to try and make it fun for her. Is there something in history that she enjoys? For (a pretty bad) example she might like music. Could you get her interested in the music from different countries or different eras? Once she learns about the music from different times, it might inspire her to learn even more. The same with english. I don't know what else would make it fun for her, you know her better than me so maybe you can think of something... or you could just tell her that if she wants to graduate and go on to college and do well, she will have to take some classes she doesn't like - I sure did. Support her as she does her work and she'll be fine.

Answer 6

Everyone does but kids in general just hate school, I'm not sure how you can really help other than try to motivate her to do better so that she can graduate and get into a good college to ultimately get a college degree to have a brighter future. Its hard though for kids to grasp this concept. Alot drop out because they lack the motivation and commitment towards school but if they could just picture how their life would and would not be with/without a college education then they would definitely chose to go to college assumed that they graduate from high school.

Answer 7

Children of today enjoy learning through multimedia. When she has a problem pertaining History, try relating to her about the story of your family and how your daughter came about. Go back as far as your memory can bring you. support this with old photos if you can still find them. Relate to her about the achievements of great grandpas, grandmas...and what not. If she will enjoy learning it, then it will be easy for you to use that as an example of the value of learning History.
Problem of English is always a problem among native speakers. Why study it when you are already using it? How about talking to your daughter intentionally, in broken English or in wrong grammar. If she will be annoyed, somehow she will learn the value of studying English....just a suggestion.

Answer 8

It's irrelevant whether she "likes" a class or not. Students must be prepared to do things they don't like doing - it gets them prepared for the REAL WORLD!! Everyone has to do things we don't like, work with people we don't care for, etc. It's part of life. You need to give her some advice about this. It's a "Quit whining, pull yourself out of the 'poor me, I'm being imposed upon to do the work everyone else has to do' and get your behind to school and do what you need to do to graduate." THEN she won't have to have English or history again EVER if she doesn't want to - guess she's not going to college, huh?????

Answer 9

This may sound a little shady, but it sure motivated me!! My mom and dad knew I would have trouble with chemistry and statistics (I can't stand math and science). So she and my dad made me a deal. They said that if I could pull an A, they would give me $100, if I could pull a B, they would give me $75, a C $50, and if I got a D, I owed them $25, and if I got an F, then I owed them $50!! I definitely made sure that I didn't get lower than a C!! :) But it really motivated me! Yes, money motivated me. But with that money, I was able to buy some stuff for college! In my Stats class, I ended up with an A, and a B in chemistry!! I was so proud of myself!! Of course, if you DO do this, make sure to reinterate that this is a one-time deal, and once she hits college, she is on her own.

Answer 10

My son has the same problem. What they don't get is the relationship between a high school diploma and opportunities after high school like college and better jobs. Maybe if she had a job she could see the benefit of an education.