Sufficient school marks Or cut back on the footbag?

[*Jethro*]

Yo.

I am in a bit of a tumble with this one. Heres the deal; My mum says that my I need to bring my school marks up. At the moment, I am landing B's and passing all my subjects with ease. She says "why get B's when your capable of A's?"

Personally, I think she thinks that I waste too much time on footbag related things other than school work and that I "need to pull my finger out" and get my marks up to "where they should be".
I got 6 A's on my end semester report card last year and obviously she wants those again. Should I:

A) Cut back on the footbag related stuff and and work hard for my A's...

OR

B) Stuff going for A's, B's are good enough and stick my head down when it really starts to matter (I am in grade 9 and I think (also I have been told that school is a bit of a bludge until you start getting into grades 10,11 and 12) and my marks should be at an A level.

Your help/in put/advice would be greatly appreciated

[kaos]

Stuff going for A's, B's are good enough and stick my head down when it really starts to matter (I am in grade 9 and I think (also I have been told that school is a bit of a bludge until you start getting into grades 10,11 and 12) and my marks should be at an A level.

You parenthesis doesn't match, so I think you must work hard for that A's.


Actually, IMHO formal marks are not that important. Not when you're still as young as you are. Later on, it gets more important, especially if you consider going to an university (potential employers may also take a second look at your school marks). But even then, marks doesn't say much about what you know, or how smart you are, usually they just measure how good your short-term memory is.

I think what is important is that you understand the work, so that if you decided later on to go for straight A's, you don't have to catch up.

But, the two need not be mutually exclusive...learn to manage your time better so that you can make time for work and play.

[Colin]

Can you imagine sitting with an old friend 40 years from now reminiscing about the time you both aced AP calculas? No? How about the summer where you both learned how to do barraging sets?

If you choose as a child to push your passions aside for the sake of prestige and distinction, what chance do you have to enjoy life as an adult?

Edit: Counterpoint. Mother knows best. The phrase has been around a long time for a reason - they usually do.

[Guest_2]

Make time for both

[footjoe]

fuck school and play footbag all the time , hey I failed 2 classes but had a awesome time playing footbag

[QuantumBalance]

listen to me... you can do both.. u just have to pick something ELSE to stop doing

like video games or TV or .. you know what else u do

do both.. get As and play footbag they compliment each other

[sampotter]

I have time for both, you do too!

[SandWraith]

Actually, IMHO formal marks are not that important. Not when you're still as young as you are. Later on, it gets more important, especially if you consider going to an university....

However, habits carry over, and I know plenty of my friends in 7th and 8th grade said essentially "fuck this. middle school doesn't count anyways" and didn't do homework or study. When the "important" years came around, they didn't change-- still not studying and very little homework. Humans are creatures of habit, and habits die hard. I would say put in as much work as YOU think you should; don't let us make your decisions for you, especially one as important as this.

Also, this is not a topic easily discussed, because it is a matter of marginal cost and marginal benefit. If you had to give up 30 minutes of footbag a week to get the As, it would be much different than if you had to nearly quit footbag to do the same thing. Evaluate how much you think it will cut into your freetime and how much that time is worth to you, as well as how much your parents' approval (or disapproval) does. Finally, as others have said, see if there isn't any other stuff you would be willing to sacrifice. I used to watch tv about an hour a day, and I got rid of that to allow more time for footbag.

Hope this helps.

[professor]

Ok this is what you do. Say you have a big test tomorrow and you really need to study, but you also haven't played footbag in the last....24 hours or so and you have to do that too.

What you do is bring the stuff you need to study with you to wherever you play footbag. Then if you play with other people, when you don't have the bag pick up your notes and study a few things, then when you get the bag do a run, pass the bag and try to remember what you just learned. If you can't remember go over it again until you can, then move on.

If you play by yourself do the same thing except do runs until you are out of breath and take a short break and study a bit. Go back to footbag and repeat the cycle.

This way you are studying and playing footbag at the same time. It's the best of both worlds.

[full nelson]

Sam's got the right idea. Stop surfing the internet if you have to.

Grades are more important than shred practice. Now that I look back, I would have rather studied harder in highschool and gotten scholarships. These student loans are a bitch. Footbag is still fun even if you aren't the best in the world.

[Chema]

listen to me... you can do both.. u just have to pick something ELSE

like video games or TV or .. you know what else u do

do both.. get As and play footbag they compliment each other

Smart man.

Your mom is wrong, footbag is not the cause of your B's, it's everything else. In my opinion if you career is important (and is one that necessitates good schooling) than school should be top priority, You can cut back on anything else, just make a list of priorities for yourself find the ones that are less important and cut back on those (I suggest you don't blow-off school though, because it will affect the long term, depending...)

[*Jethro*]

Wow!
So many replies already.
Your tips sound great. I am sure I could cut out some T.V. time with out any trouble. Betta hit the books

More ideas would still be cool

[freestyler4life]

you can get a's and play footbag beacause if I can get a's, play competitive soccer, play footbag, and marching band/jazz band....


....than you can get a's and play footbag


(now i probably dont play as much as you but thats not the point )

[JFootbagger]

Ok this is what you do. Say you have a big test tomorrow and you really need to study, but you also haven't played footbag in the last....24 hours or so and you have to do that too.

What you do is bring the stuff you need to study with you to wherever you play footbag. Then if you play with other people, when you don't have the bag pick up your notes and study a few things, then when you get the bag do a run, pass the bag and try to remember what you just learned. If you can't remember go over it again until you can, then move on.

If you play by yourself do the same thing except do runs until you are out of breath and take a short break and study a bit. Go back to footbag and repeat the cycle.

This way you are studying and playing footbag at the same time. It's the best of both worlds.

This sounds actually like an EXCELLENT idea. Props! Anyways, my two cents. School really isn't that all hard, it's just about organizing your time and doing the work. I remember in my freshmen year, I played footbag and still did school work and still got A's. Just gotta organize your time man...like everyone else is saying

[SandWraith]

More ideas would still be cool

Don't be a foolio, stay in schoolio... and also don't do drugs.

But it seems like a lot of the people saying 'school isn't hard' are projecting their circumstances onto Jesse. Just because something is easy for you doesn't mean it necessarily is for someone else. Vasek might think that montage is easy, but he sure doesn't go around saying that everyone should be able to handle it because he finds it easy. Perhaps Jesse is taking very advanced classes, or there's a subject he doesn't really like.

The point being, the statement "it's easy so you can do it" holds no water and shouldn't be the grounds for an argument.

[cd]

If doing well in high school prevents you from getting 1-2 hours of good exercise daily, then there's something wrong with your schooling, not your skooling.

[hacksterbator]

i totally agree with Sam. it's all about time managment. but take a look at what brad said: studen loans suck. it would be nice to go to university and not have juggle studies, working to pay off student loans and playing footbag. having some/all of your tuition payed off would be very nice, and probably will allow you more footbag time in the long run.
i work full time at odd hours, so in order to play footbag i had to drop alot of other things i spent time on. TV was a big one. now i can say i have probably watched about 1 hour in the past 2 weeks. video games went out the window. i dropped alot of social things, like just hanging out with friends (i'm not saying you should stop hanging out with your friends, but do you really need to spend your evening walking around the mall?) i even quit using modified for a while, and i plan on doing it again soon.
i stopped doing pretty much every thing except footbag and work. now with university starting this fall, i plan on doing the exact same thing. study hard for my A's and shred like a bat outt hell when i can. you need to work out a schedule that works for you so you can do both things. perhaps give up part of your lunch hour every day to study or finish off some home work... use your noggin and figure out some solutions to help your self through.

[Bander87]

Telling your mother that exercising both sides of the body (doing flipsides) works both sides of the BRAIN, thus MAKING YOU SMARTER. Not only in a LOGICAL and MATHEMATICAL sense, but also in a CREATIVE and ARTISTIC sense. Footbag requires concentration, research (new trick techniques) and MENTAL AWARENESS and ENERGY.

Feeling good about your grades and feeling absolutely great about your body and footbag game will LIFT SPIRITS, and high spirits and a GOOD ATTITUDE are one of the ESSENTIAL components to LEARNING. Being in good spirits and having a good attitude will not only help you in the real professional world, but will help PREVENT depression and getting into the wrong kind of crowd, drugs, and alcohol.

Actually, this was just an idea, you don’t have to tell her that But on a serious note, it wouldn’t hurt too much if you gave up 20 min of footbag and some tv, chatting, and such to concentrate more on school. Once you get those A’s and once it becomes easier to keep those A’s, THEN you will have more time for footbag! So my view is respect your parents (shows them you are being responsible and possibly future rewards), get those A’s, and then just keep them without having to try all that hard.

[qphox]

listen to me... you can do both.. u just have to pick something ELSE to stop doing

like video games or TV or

OR MODIFIED.

[C-Fan]

Some good ideas here.

I agree, the main idea is time management, and getting your priorities straight. You definitely have time for footbag and school. If footbag is a top priority, dump other activities, like TV, modified, etc. Cancel your internet if you have to.