Apple. Tree. Not far. Oops.

From time to time I’ve shared my frustration at SportBoy’s rather lackluster study habits.  They have only marginally improved this year. His first semester grades were about the same as before, though he did pull off a B in science which last year was barely a C-. However, there were not as many missed assignments and his organization skills have improved. Still, when I got an email from his English teacher yesterday I about hit the roof. I’ve been on top of his homework planning all year. Every Monday we go over what’s coming up for the week and plan out when to get major tasks/studying done. Last week he was with his dad, but I showed him the essay that was due on Tuesday – after a nice long four day weekend mind you. Now, I *did* forget to tell his dad to CHECK the essay himself. Make sure he saw it, that it was saved on the laptop and printed out. Fine, minor detail, but really – should I have to remind them BOTH of that? I think not.

Wrong.

Thankfully his English teacher sent me that note to tell me that no essay had been turned in. Heck, it’s not even the FINAL VERSION that was due – just a dang rough draft!! She was kindly letting him use his one late homework pass and would give him full credit IF he emailed it to her last night. He gets home from batting practice at 7:30 – checks the laptop and “oh no!” it’s not there! (I’d love to say I was shocked, but I was not). I just sighed and left him to do the assignment again (or, for the first time, who really knows?) Muttering the whole time about how easy he had it since back in my day we didn’t HAVE rough drafts! You just read the book and wrote the paper, dammit! And you know how long ago he got that book? I bought it just before the Christmas break! They had two months to read it and then just write a ROUGH DRAFT! And even *that* he couldn’t do on time??!!

Why, I remember when I read a book while riding in a bus back from a performing dance tour, arrived back at the dorms around 8pm and then wrote the paper that was due the very next day that night, all night, no laptop, just me and a pen! And I got an A on that paper! And…

Wait – did I just admit to waiting until the last minute to write an English paper for high school?

And I *never* pulled all nighters to cram for tests (if by *never* you mean, sometimes-maybe at least twice a semester).

How quickly we forget eh? Not that this means I’ll cut him any slack. I mean, really – a late pass and the opportunity to do a rough draft after two months? I *wish* I’d had those when I was in school! Because I would *totally* have taken advantage just like he is!! 🙂