It seems report cards come around every 9 wks rather than the 6 that they did when I was growing up. I figure it’s less red tape for the teacher’s and makes more sense. Well, this time around for some reason I had a nagging feeling and kept asking my 5th grader when we would see the fruits of all his labor.

The last report card held 3 C’s. This report card had been promised to reflect more of the A’s & B’s that we were used to. Yet when I got the voicemail that reflected a sad, worried and please have mercy on my soul tone, I knew that he had gotten his report card and it wasn’t good. It took me right back to those days when I had my own less than perfect marks. He tried to use the defense that he had actually brought his grades up from last time. The C’s were only a point or two away from a B…yet they were still C’s.

He’s smart and could easily make A’s & B’s if he would just apply himself his teacher says. He has been moved to the back of the classroom recently due to talking and not paying attention.

When I discuss things with him, he replies that C’s are okay. I say that C’s are average and ask him if he wants to be average? Instead of the “no” answer that I would like to hear, he replies with a firm “yes”. I shake my head and give him all of the consequences that will be ahead of him until his grades are pulled up. I try to explain to him how it only gets harder from here and that he is going to have to put more effort into school.

I have a hard time cracking the whip because he reminds me alot of myself at his age. At 10 years old, I really started changing as I developed my own independent spirit where I thought I knew everything and school was just something that I showed up to every day with a different outfit on. I was moved in class as well for talking. I was moved away from the window for staring out it & “day dreaming”. In the fifth grade I had to write the “I will not talk in class” and “I will not chew gum” sentences…on paper and on the board.

Concerning grades, I did “okay” as well. I was mostly a B student with the occassional C. I was “average” with nothing to prove and no real incentive to “apply” myself. I did enough to get by, enough to get into college and enough to get a job. With my job now, I obviously work harder with the economic crisis, but there are only a few things in life that I truly feel passionate about. So even though I will try to work on giving him incentives to do his best in school, I know that he will probably only reach his fullest potential in something that he naturally is in love with…and alot of times we don’t find it in school.