Why Teenagers Stop Trying in High School? Re-Inspiring Your Child

There’s plenty of reasons outside of school to explain why teenagers stop trying in high school. The changing nature of personal relationships, hormones, new and exciting social activities, and the possibility of new friends who may not be the best influence. But so many other reasons are directly related to their school work. The good news is high school tutoring can help!

Here’s a list of 7 reasons why teenagers stop trying in high school, and how to re-inspire them.

A History of Struggling (Leads to Self-Doubt)

If your child has consistently found their schoolwork hard or received bad marks in the past, self-doubt has probably crept in. When bad reports have been seen as a failure for while, children can lose confidence in themselves and stop trying. This will often lead to excuses, avoidance, and progressively worse marks.

High school tutoring can be a great way to rebuild a child’s confidence by celebrating achievements and providing them with a safe, secure place to rediscover a love of learning.

Knowledge Gaps Not Picked Up in Primary School

With so many different subjects and concepts to grasp in high school, it can be exceptionally hard for students if they are already on the back foot. Even struggling with one basic maths concept for example, can make the following work so much harder. These gaps in knowledge can also lead to low confidence and an unwillingness to try.

High school tutoring is the perfect way to identify some of those gaps, fill them, and get your child back on the right path.

Poor Relationship with Teachers (and Wrong Learning Style)

They say you can choose your friends but not your family. Kids also can’t choose their teachers but they can choose their tutors! Expecting children to relate well to every one of their teachers is unrealistic, and unfortunately not all teachers will be able to adapt their teaching style to match your child’s preferred method of learning.

Effective high school tutoring should be able to find out what works best for your child. It should be individualised, personal, and the tutors should be relatable. The best thing is, you and your child can choose the tutor you feel will adapt best to your child’s needs.

Not Linking School to Career Goals

Have you ever heard a child say, “There’s no point to learning this!” or “I’ll never use this anyway, I want to be a (insert career here).” Sometimes they’re just not able to link the work they’re doing in school to the work they want to be doing later in life.

High school tutoring can provide guidance for career goals and even dedicate whole sessions to goal setting and career planning if required. If discussing future goals is a way to re-inspire a child’s learning, every good tutor should be equipped to do so.

Not Having The Right Planning Skills

Primary school was all about worksheets, spelling tests and right or wrong answers. High school is a whole different kettle of fish. For example, the written work expected of a high school student is of a much higher standard. It’s not a matter of just spilling words onto a page anymore – it needs to be planned.

Knowing how to plan sentences, essays, assignments – in fact, all written work – is a key to success in high school. Tutoring should target this as a priority. Planning also builds a child’s confidence in their ability to produce a finished product.

School is One-Size-Fits-All

Children all have different learning needs and different styles of teaching they identify with. This isn’t a criticism of school, but it isn’t reasonable to expect a teacher to adapt their whole lesson plan in five different ways to suit every learning style. Unfortunately, if a child can’t get the individual attention they need, it can lead to a decrease in confidence and lack of effort.

High school tutoring can focus on the current school curriculum with your student, giving them the added help they need in order to be more productive during the school day.

Low Self-Esteem

Nearly all of the issues you’ve just read can lead to a child’s self-esteem plummeting. When they’re struggling, it can be difficult to catch up on their own and this leads to low self-esteem, a lack of confidence to give things a try, and then the avoidance and excuses.

Getting on top of any difficulties your child has early can help prevent low self-esteem. We all want our kids to believe they can take on the world, and high school tutoring can help get them back to that way of thinking.

At Big Improvements Tutoring we aim to provide a supportive, confidence-building environment where children can get their studies back on track. If you think your child would benefit from positive, individualised high school tutoring, click below to book your free session today!