I’ve been down and out for a few days with a major tooth infection. I have had the joys of painkillers to ease the pain, which is a good thing. I need them today. Not for the toothache though, but rather because I think I might beat my head on the wall.
We’ve had issues all school year with Jason and his Language Arts (formerly known as English) class. He tests well in Language Arts – his teacher told me this morning that his TAKS test results even indicate he should be in the advanced class that he is in. But he has butted heads with her all year long, and today? Today is the final straw.
Last week, they were given a project to do as a group. They had to create a poster with various items. Jason had to come up with laws for a community based on what they were reading in “The Giver.” His group each had a piece of the project to do, and that was his. He came to class the next day with nothing done. The kicker? He told the teacher that was because he really, “had a lot to do at home.”
There is just one problem with that – he didn’t have a lot to do at home. Matter of fact, he has had review sheets to study for finals, and that is it. They turned in their books before the tests even finished, so they started studying awhile back.
So she gave him another shot, and left him in the group. Again, the next day, no work completed. So she informed him that he could not just coast through and get a 100 with the other kids if he wasn’t going to contribute to the project. It wouldn’t have been fair to the other kids – a point that I completely agree with her on. She told him that if he wasn’t going to do the work, she was going to pull him from the group so that they wouldn’t suffer – and she told me that he responded that that was good, because he preferred to do it himself.
Just one problem. He didn’t bother to do any of it then.
A major grade, the last grade of the school year, no way to recover from a zero, and he didn’t do it at all.
His excuse to her yesterday? He couldn’t turn in the poster because we were too busy this weekend to get a piece of posterboard for him. (Hmmm… probably because he never asked for any posterboard?)
His excuse to me this morning about why he didn’t do it? Because the teacher was being mean, and that made him not want to do it. (Obviously, that excuse didn’t go over very well.)
I think I’m going to beat my head on the wall. He just tossed his solid B in Language Arts out the window. Since I found out about the project this morning, the day after it was due, if he turns it in tomorrow the best he can get is a 50. It is a project about his opinions on things for a community. It should have been a fairly easy A or B grade. I just don’t get it. I don’t get it at all. And I know it’s not just me – every mother of a teenage boy between the ages of 13 – 15 that I’ve spoken with recently is dealing with this exact same struggle. AUGH!!! What is it? What is causing it? What can I do to fix it? WHY??? Why, why, why? Why would you just not do the project at all? Why the complete lack of accountability? What on earth can I do?
If anyone has any tips, words of advice, wisdom to share – or if you just want to share what you’re going through right now – I would appreciate it. I can’t keep banging my head on this wall.
