On the subject of musical 16 yr olds, chemistry and liberal arts - an answer

This is an answer to a specific woman's question. Perhaps someone will come across her and share this, or will find it useful for themselves.

For a 16 yr old who prefers music and psychology to chemistry, but may need it to reach the goal of college, there are several possible answers. The parent(s) need to prayerfully counsel which is the right course to pursue, and invite the youth to do the same. At this age it would be appropriate to ask the youth if they are ready to submit to a mentor, the parent or someone else. This would mean studying chemistry because the mentor asks for a commitment to do so. How the subject is studied is something that should be discussed and agreed upon, and carried out in a way that meets the student's needs. If they do not need chemistry for their future plans in college, then they just need enough to pass the ACT or SAT. Do some practice tests and test prep to determine the need there. If they or the parent feels that a broad education is valuable then it can be studied with a liberal arts approach alone.

For a liberal arts approach I recommend starting with these readings - The Mystery of the Periodic Table by Wiker and Exploring the World of Chemistry by Tiner, add some chemistry experiments (www.homesciencetools.com) for some hands on experience. Be sure that the mentor is reading the books and discussing them and the experiments with the student. From there the student may be done, or if interested, could move on to something more traditional like Apologia, or choose people and ideas to research for further exploration and experimentation.

For this particular situation I would also look for any connections between music, psychology and chemistry, such as the pattern of 8s in octaves and the periodic table, brain chemistry, etc.

Hope this is helpful to someone!;)