愛生活
愛生活
對兒子來說，我知道自己不是一個合格的媽媽。
他在學校裏的事情和學習我從來沒有管過。我隻是不停地在他耳邊嘮叨，要好好學習多參加各種課外活動。我苦口婆心給他講我的經驗和教訓，以期他少走彎路。我以為我嘮叨多了，他就能聽進去我說的話，他就會變得越來越好。其實，我的嘮叨把他推地離我越來越遠。等我想和他一起做一些事情的時候，他根本就不願意和我在一起花費時間。意識到這一點，我的傷心無與倫比。
他變成一個和我所期待的完全相反的人。他是一個小心敏感的宅男，他有一顆倔強而迷茫的心。甚至於從外表，他都要反抗到底。於是，我不得不慢慢接受一個滿頭亂發須著胡子的年輕人。
我多麽希望，到這時候，我意識到有關言傳身教的古訓有多麽智慧，知道spend quality time的說法有多重要，還不為時太晚。
他馬上要高中畢業， S A T的考試成績我覺得並不理想，但是他隻考了一次就堅決不再考第二次。
我告訴他，我知道他是一個聰明的孩子，我隻是希望他能發揮自己最大的潛能。可是他告訴我，他知道自己在做什麽，對他來說，快樂才是最重要的。哪怕以後當個中學老師，他隻要自己快樂就好。
我沒有他的勇氣，不能確定簡單的生活就能讓我快樂。而他，也許還太年輕，以後想法會改變。
我想，他其實，還有大把的時間可以奢侈浪費，而我需要平靜下自己四十多歲的一顆心，對他充滿耐心和信心。
也許，到這裏，我就該停下。不過，我想說，父母真的不一定比孩子正確。
我要承認，到今晚之前，我還不知道具體什麽是national merit schalorship。因為兒子收到村裏的一封信，請他去參加例會，我才查找了相關的內容。我知道，這對很多華人來說，根本不算一回事，但是，回想這兩三年來發生在我和兒子之間的爭執和分歧，我要為兒子感到驕傲。
下麵的內容是才wiki來的，我不能確定內容都對。
This program is a competition for recognition and merit-based scholarships awarded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a non-profit organization. To participate, a student must take the PSAT/NMSQT in a specified year as a high school student planning to enroll in college and must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
Here's how the National Merit scholars are selected out of all the high school seniors in the U.S.:
1.5 million entrants. The National Merit scholarship program uses the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQ) test to screen more than 1.5 million entrants.
50,000 high scorers.
Each year, a qualifying score is determined to select the top 50,000 highest scorers on the PSAT, which is usually taken at the beginning of a student's junior year. These students have the opportunity to have their scores sent to two colleges or universities of their choice by the NMSC.
16,000 semifinalists. Among those 50,000 students, 34,000 are designated "Commended Students," and the remaining 16,000 are named National Merit semifinalists. They are the highest scoring entrants in each state and will receive application materials to apply for National Merit Scholarships.
15,000 finalists. Next, semifinalists who meet academic and other requirements advance to Finalist standing. All National Merit Scholarship winners are selected from this group.
8,200 Merit Scholarship winners. The NMSC selects 8,200 Merit Scholars winners who will receive one of three types of scholarships: National Merit scholarships, corporate-sponsored scholarships, or college-sponsored scholarships.
1,500 special scholarships. Scholarships provided by corporate sponsors are also awarded to students who qualified as high scorers but weren't selected as finalists。
The scholarship program was started in 1955 and has recognized 3 million students and provided more than 335,000 scholarships worth more than $1.3 billion.
The program has been very successful in achieving its goal to honor and encourage academically talented high school students.
For today's high school students, it's important to develop a well-rounded profile: Challenging course work, good grades and achievements in extracurricular activities may come into play even more than SAT scores.
如果是Finalist,就有希望拿到獎學金。我家兩個全拿到獎學金的。