Launch freshmen in the right direction

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Launch freshmen in the right direction

Tuesday, August 24, 1999

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Here's how you can help your ninth-graders make it through their freshman year, according to Robert McMurray, principal of Allderdice High School, and Jay Hertzog, dean of the College of Education at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania:

Ask your teen-agers about what they're doing in school and how they're doing early on.

Make contact with teachers, at least at open house, if not before.

Talk to your teen about what he or she is feeling.

Listen to your teen.

See that your teen tours the high school before the year begins.

Be involved in your child's life. "Fourteen-year-old kids might not say they want that. Deep down inside they want someone to care about them," Hertzog said.