So What Did I Do?
It is Dylan’s last day of school. Starting tomorrow, he has one exam each day – which will represent 33% of his final semester grade.
Going into exams, he has four C’s in four classes. One of his classes – Biology – is a solid C for the semester. It was a B last semester, but with a C this semester, he will have a C for the class.
This goes on his college transcript, and there is nothing he can do to change it.
But the other C’s can change. If Dylan gets great grades on his exams, he will be able to pull himself out of the gutter, one more time.
Dylan, however, decided that this weekend, he had no real desire to study. He was tired, he said, and just didn’t feel like he could get up off the chair. He claimed he had studied some, and that he will do fine on the exams if he just studies a little bit more.
In other words, he chose this weekend to be a typical adolescent. Instead of rising to the challenge, and becoming the student he knows he can be, he let the pressure smack him down and hold him there.
So what did I do?
Well, after I suggested that he study, and after I said NO, your friends can NOT come over, and after I explained why this weekend was so important, and after I handed him three study guides that I printed, and after I told him no electronics until he’d done the work that was due on the last day of school, and after I yelled about the importance of working on school work THIS weekend… then, finally, I gave up.
And oddly, I believe that if it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t have even done the work that was due on the last day of school, let alone studied for exams.
But let’s be honest: he says he cares. He says and says and says he cares. But he has yet to really SHOW that he cares.
He says he’s studying a lot. He says and says and says he is studying. He says he studies because he cares even more than I do.
I really do care. If I were in charge of doing the work, I would be spending hours and hours and hours more on studying and getting ready for exams.
I watch him do very, very little – and I care very much.