Lest you think I only brag about one son…
Posted by: Allthesilver1 in Derek's Adventures
Derek and his girl at her senior prom
Derek is my older son. It’s not easy to get photos of him, he is a bit camera shy. He looks really sharp in a tux, but, unless there’s a big wedding, he’ll probably never wear one again!
He’s 22 now and is working for Magnetic Seal in Rhode Island. They make parts for airplanes and helicopters (in particular, a magnetic seal for the rotors of military helicopters). His job is called “Inspections” and is a sort of quality contol with an attitude.
Derek is very bright, and it is hard to believe he quit high school. Actually, he attended four years of high school, and then was told just before graduation that he did not have enough credits to graduate, and in fact, wasn’t even in the right classes to get the credits he needed!
I blame that entirely on the school and the guidance department. He had complained at the beginning of the year that he had not gotten the classes he had asked for and was told to “put in a slip” to see the guidance counseller. He did not get an appointment. He even tried to approach her in the hallway and was told he had to make an appointment. When I finally got called in to speak with the principal because Derek was skipping the class he had been put in, I was told it was too far into the year to change his class then.
So, a wasted school year later they were telling me that Derek would have to go to summer school to get the credits. Then they called me and said that they had reviewed his credits and found that some of them were not in classes he had needed, and he would have to come back in the fall for another semester. He was, of course, not at all happy with that. He told the principal he would just get a GED. The principal pretty much said he did not think Derek was capable of passing the GED exams. When the guidance counseller called me to say that she had discovered that Derek would actually have to attend TWO YEARS!!! of high school to get the proper credits, that was when Derek quit. The principal gave me a speech about Derek being doomed to have a minimum wage job all his life. I said that I was not worried, I know how smart my boys are.
Derek did go on to take the GED exams. He did not study or take any classes to prepare for the exams. Out of a possible score of 800, with a minimum of 410 being required on each section to pass, he scored a 700 in Language Arts - Reading, a 550 in Language Arts - Writing, a 710 in Mathematics, an 800 in Science, and a 700 in Social Studies. An average score for all sections of 450 is also required to pass. His average was 692.
The high school told me numerous times how much more difficult it is to pass the GED exams than it is to graduate from high school. You have no idea how much self control it has taken for me to not march down to the high school and rub the transcript of Derek’s test results in their faces!
And, as to his working a minimum wage job all his life, he is working at a job that requires extreme precision, advanced computer and design skills, and a security clearance which had to come from Interpol.
I did ask Derek why he scored so “low” on his Writing portion of the tests. He said “Ma!, they said to pick a character from a book or movie and tell how he influenced my life!” Hmmm….. I said, “Did you write about Winnie the Pooh?” He perked, “Crap!, I didn’t think of him!”
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