Zack is a great kid.  He's personable, intelligent and maybe the funniest person I know. 

He has never gotten good grades.  This is frustrating as hell for me and Jay because we know how smart he is.  We also know that he may be the laziest kid on planet earth.  He's like the guy who remodels his house without pulling any permits because he figures the fines are less expensive than the permission.  Zack seems to have decided years ago that getting good grades are not even close to worth all the trouble.

Over the last couple of years, in our attempts to make bad grades more trouble than homework is,  he has lost privileges, opportunities and furniture.  At one point there was nothing in his bedroom but a mattress.  He decided he liked the mattress because his feet hung off the end and this way they could rest on the floor. He's like the Borg; he adjusts and moves on.  Unlike the Borg, he is constitutionally incapable of being unhappy for more than a few minutes at a time.

Today I got The Letter.

His school has a policy of sending out letters to parents shortly before midterm to alert them to how their kids are doing, if they have any unexplained absences and if they are in danger of failing any classes.

Last year each of the letters we got was up to six pages long.

I really didn't want to open it.

I took a deep breath and ripped.

One little piece of paper fluttered out.  I picked it up and unfolded it. 

Algebra.  D.

That's it.  He's only in danger of getting a D in one class!!

I felt like baking him a cake!

Then, in answer to an email I sent last night, his history teacher contacted me to say that Zack was getting an A or B in that class!!

I AM going to bake him a cake!

Meanwhile, down in the wreckage of New Orleans, Katie has taken her Lsat.  She said she felt jittery during the first section, but then she reminded herself that she doesn't even want to be a lawyer, so she settled down and did alright on the rest of it.  She'll get her scores in about three weeks.

She called today just to say hi.  She said that she felt so exhausted after the Lsat that she hasn't gotten any work done since.

"I had a paper due today and I didn't write it." she told me.

"What are you going to do?"  I asked.

"I emailed the teacher and explained why I was so tired out and that I really wanted to do a good job on this paper but that last weekend I just didn't have it in me, so could I please have a few extra days to write it?  He emailed back and said ordinarily he wouldn't grant a request like that but he'd make an exeption for me."

"Great!  What class is it?"

"Persuasive Writing."

 

What did you think of this article?

Liked
Disliked
No Opinion