Put On Notice

My friend was lamenting the fact that my blog has been very Owen heavy lately and she thinks that Shane's getting the shaft.  So, dear friend, this blog post is for you.  However, I suspect that this isn't the post that you expected to get.

Shane is a very smart child.  We all know that.

He's taking 9th grade math (in the 7th grade) and if he would actually do his work AND turn it in, he would be making an A with no effort.  As it is, he hasn't turned in his work and his grades reflect it.  He's getting a B-.

How frustrating is it to have to deal with him?  Well.  When I was his age, I studied my ass off for hours and hours and ended up with a B if I was lucky.

My sister on the other hand, was exactly like Shane.  If she would have put a little effort into her work, she would have been a straight A student.  As it was, she was content with a C.  And that's the same path that Shane's headed down.

Just do enough work to get by.

Well, it's super frustrating to watch going on.  SUPER.

UGH.

So when he comes home with a report card for Civics that looks like this:

I can assure you that I was NOT happy about it.

And now he's not happy because he's lost television, video games and his computer.

But says that it's not his fault because he just didn't understand the work.

That may be well and good and all that but I saw see his teacher in the grocery store (who happens to be a friend of mine) and she filled me in on the fact that she loves Shane but his effort is the big suck and he should know that teachers know when kids do their work 5 minutes before the class bell rings.  She also confirmed that he's not handing in his work.  With a big sigh.

So yeah.  Shane, if you're reading this, this is NOT okay.  And I am NOT happy with you.  We had a conversation at the beginning of the year (or many conversations truth be told) about the fact that the effort that you put into your work needs to step up a notch or 10.

You may get away with the crappy effort that your putting into your work now kiddo, but I can assure you that the higher that you go in school, the less that you're going to get away with it.

Have pride in your work and put some effort into it.  You are capable of much more than this. Don't waste the gift that you were given.  Most kids would love to have the academic gifts that you do.

Stop wasting them.

But if you do continue down this path, I can assure you that you are in for a long and BORING teenage years without TV, computers, video games and anything else that I can think of that is sucking the time away from studying.

Get it together.  I'm done with your lack of effort and crappy attitude son.  DONE.

You've been put on notice.