He is Now Doing the Work.
Dylan’s decision to drop out of the IB program has not changed our strategy in dealing with the “LD” part of his GT/LD-ness. If anything, in fact, it’s made our resolve stronger.
“You can’t take regular classes and not get A’s,” I told him. “And the only thing you really need to do to get A’s is to turn in your work.”
So he’s turning in his work.
He’s doing it in an unexpected way – but the signature sheet and the 1.5-hour homework shifts every evening are helping. In spite of his resistance to both things, he’s sitting down every evening and actually doing work.
He’s doing it with music blaring, and with non-stop singing. He never stops singing. But he is getting work done. He worked on his “source cards” (which, I assume, means his bibliography) for English for four days. At the end of those four days, all of the zeros he had in English were replaced with A’s.
He is getting A’s in English. It is work, but he is now doing the work.
He is nearly lying down in his chair. Sometimes one size 14 shoe is on the desk while the other is underneath him. He does his work while sitting like a pretzel or a log. But he is doing the work.
Yesterday he texted me from school: “I got an A on my Computer Science test,” he said.
It’s an AP class. And he got an A! He’s been keeping up with his work in the class, so he knows what he’s doing on the test, too!
He’s coming home with signatures on his signature sheet, too. He’s not happy about it. He complains every day about something that happened to make it hard for him to get a signature. But he’s getting those signatures.
He’s being proactive in talking to the teachers. For the first time ever, he knows when things are missing before I do.
When I told him he was missing five assignments – FIVE assignments! – in Government, he held up a folder.
“That’s what this is!” he nearly shouted. He flapped some papers around. “These are the five assignments! Now will you back off and let me do my work?!”
I have heard the term “back off” more times than I can count lately.
I am absolutely thrilled about that.
In fact, I am backing off. Finally.
I can actually do that now.