Meanwhile, His Grades Plummet.
Dylan was out of school – sick – for three days in as many weeks. And he’s had two choral field trips.
He’s never recovered – although physically, he is well.
At school, he can’t catch up.
He’s been behind before. In fact, he is almost always behind. He started off the quarter going full-force. He came home with work, announced it, went and did it. He worked during lunches and after school. He caught up in everything. He swore he was aiming for straight A’s this quarter.
And then he just … stopped.
He doesn’t talk to his teachers. He doesn’t make up his tests. He doesn’t show up when he says he will, to finish work that needs to be finished.
Then – after a choral field trip or a play rehearsal lasting several hours – Dylan comes home claiming that he has no homework. He doesn’t study for anything. He doesn’t complete classwork that’s missing.
In fact, he doesn’t do anything at all at home.
“Dylan,” I say. “Don’t you have anything at all you can do for school? You have three D’s and a C.”
“There’s nothing I can do at home,” he says. “I have to do all that stuff at school.”
“Let’s look online together,” I say. “Let’s see what you have.”
He rolls his eyes and huffs. We look online together.
“I did ALL of that,” he tells me. “Just because it says it’s not done on the computer doesn’t mean it’s really not turned in.”
Then he goes up to his keyboard and sits and plays music. He does this for hours.
Meanwhile, his grades plummet. He failed a unit test in computer science – again. This is the second unit test he’s failed (of two) and there is no way to bring up those grades. He can’t “retake” a test like he did in middle school. Meanwhile, he’s not getting his work turned in, either, so all of his grades are dropping.
And I am just watching the landslide.
Again.