Sounds like an executive function problem. Does he have adhd? This was my son in 7th grade, but I've been working with him on systems.

It sometimes is actually better to get a D or an F in a class than a C because many school systems and colleges will allow a student to retake that semester and then accept the new grade instead of the failing grade in the GPA calculation. But they won't do that if the student has a C. Also because he failed if he is at a public school they will offer credit recovery in the summer for free and those are often really easy classes.

So it might be a good life lesson that he didn't do work and failed to learn that you have to turn in work even if the teacher isn't reminding you or you don't feel like doing the assignments.

Is your child at a private school? It is actually really hard to fail students at public schools. Was it an honors class? Just make sure he retakes the exact same class or many colleges and high schools won't replace the grade (or they will list both grades but only count the higher grade for GPA calculations).

Anonymous wrote:Yes, a lot of us have been there….

A lot of times it is just a responsibility or time management issue/lack of follow through. Almost as if they get behind and then struggle with how to ask for help or “right” themselves again. Also at our HS, the whole “I turned it in, but the teacher hasn’t graded it yet” actually IS totally valid at times, which is understandable but exasperating as a parent in terms of keeping track/identifying problems early. My kids have had a few teachers who saved up work over weeks and then graded it all at once.

My DS is currently a sophomore and had a great fall semester but was like this spring semester of freshman year (after having a great fall freshman semester). In his case, it was a spring sport that he was struggling to balance with schoolwork and I trusted him/lost track and didn’t catch it early enough. He ended up with two C’s (due mostly to organization and not turning things in) and I was definitely not thrilled.

Overall, it was a learning experience. He learned it was way easier to keep on top of work from day 1 rather than try to play catch up. I kept a much closer eye on things this fall semester as well.

See, this is another example of the mountain of little things that teachers are expected to do and are blamed for when students don't perform. Another example of a complete lack of student accountability these days.

Teachers have tons of grading to do, almost constantly, and the expectation that grades go in immediately after an assignment is submitted just so that the parent can see if it was done and get on their child is like treating the teacher like a personal assistant and is totally unreasonable. The teachers that can keep up with this simply give much less assignments, use online grading and therefore only do multiple choice assignments, or stress themselves working weekends and evenings.

But there used to be a time where we didn't have online systems to see grades, and therefore the student was expected to remember what work they had to do and what they did. They used to give kids planners for this purpose, and all the parent knew was the progress report grade. They didn't micromanage the kid or crumble at every sign of imperfection. A bad grade here and there was simply the perfect learning experience to keep the student from having it from happen again. The parent was going to punish them and their grades would falter and they'd lose out on sports or something. We learned to use a planner real quick.

Now? We have this huge problem of grade inflation where everyone gets above 3.5 GPA because parents do everything to make sure their kids makes no mistakes and suffers no consequences of those mistakes and then wonders why they don't have time management skills, executive functioning, or motivation on anything. Everyone's a top student that makes no mistakes until some unruly teacher comes along and doesn't do their job of making sure the students never makes mistakes and everyone gets an A. If that means sacrificing their health and time with their own children to make sure Mrs. Jones knows that Baby Jones is ABOUT to make a mistake before he actually does, then so be it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP.

Just wondering. Is your child BIPOC?

What difference could this possibly make? If she had said yes, were you then going to claim that of COURSE he is, you knew he must be black because a white kid would never be punished with an F for failing to hand in the assignments??

I hope you learned something from this thread. I’m so over these attitudes and people need to stop with the BS excuses about everything being racism when their kids just don’t do the work and follow the rules.

Thanks for taking the troll bait, racist

I’m not a racist, PP. You are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP.

Just wondering. Is your child BIPOC?

What difference could this possibly make? If she had said yes, were you then going to claim that of COURSE he is, you knew he must be black because a white kid would never be punished with an F for failing to hand in the assignments??

I hope you learned something from this thread. I’m so over these attitudes and people need to stop with the BS excuses about everything being racism when their kids just don’t do the work and follow the rules.

Thanks for taking the troll bait, racist

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is he in the right level? It sounds like this one class was more difficult than the rest. He did great in all the other classes.

I can relate with my youngest in middle school who is not big on academics.

He did the work. I saw it. He just didn’t turn it in. He can do the work.

It seems really unfair to give him that bad a grade then.

And this is why we have grade inflation at public schools… No accountability. He didn’t turn in the work, period, and you want him to get credit? That’s wild. At my kid’s school, you get a zero if it’s a day late. Unless, you give 48 hours notice and ask for an extension. This is preparation for the real world.

That being said, OP, this isn’t normal. I’d being asking myself if there are other signs that point toward ADHD or depression.

Does he keep a calendar?

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP.

Just wondering. Is your child BIPOC?

What difference could this possibly make? If she had said yes, were you then going to claim that of COURSE he is, you knew he must be black because a white kid would never be punished with an F for failing to hand in the assignments??

I hope you learned something from this thread. I’m so over these attitudes and people need to stop with the BS excuses about everything being racism when their kids just don’t do the work and follow the rules.

So he never handed it in at all? How did he explain this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is he in the right level? It sounds like this one class was more difficult than the rest. He did great in all the other classes.

I can relate with my youngest in middle school who is not big on academics.

He did the work. I saw it. He just didn’t turn it in. He can do the work.

He did the work for all his subjects but didn’t turn it in for this particular class. That doesn’t make any sense.

How is he in terms of communicating with his teachers? Did he have any absences? Even a few (2-3) absences over a semester can make a mess of things, depending on the class and what was missed.

I ask because: at our high school, any “oddities” (whether turned in late due to student error, or turned in late due to excused absence) often require direct follow up with the teacher to get graded. Especially if it is submitted online or in Google classroom. Not blaming teachers (they are overworked as it is) but many seem to set that stuff aside and not grade unless the student persists. Or it can get lost in the shuffle altogether. For missed tests and quizzes, it is the student’s responsibility to follow up with the teacher in terms of a makeup time (which is usually in the AM before school hours one day) and show up at the given time.

For legit absences our school policy gives a time period (2 days I think) to turn in missing work.

For student errors (didn’t turn it in on time)- in many cases it can be turned in late with an apology and acknowledgement of responsibility- and acceptance is at the teacher’s discretion. Most will accept the work - perhaps docking a full letter grade or giving half credit- depending how late it is or whether this is common for the student or a one-off.

My DD has no problem following up regularly with teachers but my DS had to be taught to communicate/follow up when needed. He was too passive, and uncomfortable asking, and needed guidance/reminding from me at first.

OP here. Your last sentence seems to be the issue with him. He did this for some of the work but not all of it, depending on the teacher.

This F hurts, big time, but it is also a wake up call to him for various issues and he knows it. Better for it to be now than later. And yes, I will be on him at any hint of missing work next semester.

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP.

Just wondering. Is your child BIPOC?

No.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is he in the right level? It sounds like this one class was more difficult than the rest. He did great in all the other classes.

I can relate with my youngest in middle school who is not big on academics.

He did the work. I saw it. He just didn’t turn it in. He can do the work.

He did the work for all his subjects but didn’t turn it in for this particular class. That doesn’t make any sense.

How is he in terms of communicating with his teachers? Did he have any absences? Even a few (2-3) absences over a semester can make a mess of things, depending on the class and what was missed.

I ask because: at our high school, any “oddities” (whether turned in late due to student error, or turned in late due to excused absence) often require direct follow up with the teacher to get graded. Especially if it is submitted online or in Google classroom. Not blaming teachers (they are overworked as it is) but many seem to set that stuff aside and not grade unless the student persists. Or it can get lost in the shuffle altogether. For missed tests and quizzes, it is the student’s responsibility to follow up with the teacher in terms of a makeup time (which is usually in the AM before school hours one day) and show up at the given time.

For legit absences our school policy gives a time period (2 days I think) to turn in missing work.

For student errors (didn’t turn it in on time)- in many cases it can be turned in late with an apology and acknowledgement of responsibility- and acceptance is at the teacher’s discretion. Most will accept the work - perhaps docking a full letter grade or giving half credit- depending how late it is or whether this is common for the student or a one-off.

My DD has no problem following up regularly with teachers but my DS had to be taught to communicate/follow up when needed. He was too passive, and uncomfortable asking, and needed guidance/reminding from me at first.

Hi OP.

Just wondering. Is your child BIPOC?