Mom Makes Son Wear Sign Announcing 1.22 GPA

It's crazy to think that a teen who has a bad academic year will end up a derelict. Maybe he just needs help. Maybe he lacks the maturity to manage his school work. He can get help and grow up. You can't look at a person's one high school year and predict his future.
 
I don't think the mother should, or even will, go to jail....she just made bad judgement....not knowing what else to do, or as someone said, "at the end of her rope"......I still would suggest the boy study for his GED, then get some training for a job. Not every child is the same, and we can't expect our child to excel, we can only "hope" for our child, encourage the child to do his very best.
One of my boys is also slow, he has special help, but giving him the option of playing football/tennis and drivers training, he has to maintain a "C" average. And he does, along with some "B's".....
And look at our economy!...The joblessness!...This affects our children's outlook and view on life also....Many teenagers are depressed.

As for the A&E show "Scared Straight"...oh yes, we watch it. And if my child was in a gang, cutting school, fighting, etc., I would not hesitate to give him the chance to see first-hand what could happen if he/she doesn't straighten up.
 
The reason why I am apprehensive of calling it child abuse is because ANY suspicions of child abuse could result in criminal penalties. I personally don't think she did any criminal activity nor deserves ANY punishment. She simply needs help to control her son.
 
sallylou said:
You can't look at a person's one high school year and predict his future.
Click to expand...

you can't look at person's "public shame" and predict that it will forever traumatize him either.
 
Wirelessly posted

sallylou said:
It's crazy to think that a teen who has a bad academic year will end up a derelict. Maybe he just needs help. Maybe he lacks the maturity to manage his school work. He can get help and grow up. You can't look at a person's one high school year and predict his future.
Click to expand...

Amen.




I know with me, it's because I had no aspirations in high school and I needed to mature a bit before figuring out what I wanted in life. I still don't have any end goals, but I am just peddling along making the people around me happy. It may be a waste of my potentials, but intelligence is only a tool in which we use to employ to overcome our obstacles.
 
Last edited:
Jiro, if you read more carefully, you'll see that I didn't say that the incident will "traumatize" the kid. This experience certainly doesn't rise to the level of trauma. I said that I thought that it was unwise and would hurt the parent's relationship with the child. I don't see how that negative interaction can't hurt the relationship.

Parenting teens is hard! The only people who have all the answers to rearing teens are people who haven't reared teens.:P
 
rockin'robin said:
How do, or would you...kick a 15 yr. old out of the house? With no education, no job, no place to live, etc., etc....Would you be able to sleep at night, wondering if "ur child" was safe and warm and had at least something to eat?
Click to expand...

Sadly, my mother didn't seem to notice when I had to go out to get a job to feed myself. Although she lived in the same house, it was no longer a "family" home.

I don't think the humiliation of sticking a teen out on a corner with a sign will get them to want to be educated any further. I struggle with my 13 year old daughter doing her homework or even just turning it in. Her father and I keep close tabs on her and when she gets an F in a class for not turning in work, she gets yanked meaning no tv no chatting no texting, etc. If she is trying and failing, that's not cause for yanking. That means we take a closer look at the work to see why she doesn't understand it. Within a day or two she's back on track. Sometimes the teachers just don't explain it in terms she can understand.

On the other hand I think we also have a responsibility to make sure that our children learn more than is taught in the schools. To teach them to think beyond is our responsibility too. This often triggers a need to learn that improves their ability in school. Given, most teenagers lose their minds at a given point and are like wild stallions without a bridle. Getting them to accept societies rules and still be able to make changes to their world without being crushed is walking that fine wire between "I love you" and "I hate you" and I've heard plenty of "I hate you" in the past 6 months.

I have yelled back, and in public, when she does something unacceptable. I have let her alone when she bursts out into tears until she's ready to talk again. I have suffered the "cold shoulder" more times than I can count and she's not even 15 yet. But I would not stick her on a street corner with a sign to intentionally humiliate her. I don't think she'd even stay there unless she was chained to a pole. She certainly wouldn't hold that sign.

There are times when we just have to entice, there are times when we have to play the hard-ass. If none of it works, we eventually have to accept that they have to fall on their own face to see the value of what it is they are missing.
 
I remember reading about a judge who ordered a guy to stand on the side of the highway telling people he brought a blow up doll with him so he could ride in the HOV lane...it can't be that bad. Hmm...I think that one made national news.

That being said, my son will never have a 1.22 GPA. An indifference to schoolwork? HA! I WILL SCHOOL YOU, BOY!
 
It is bad enough to put a blame on the teenager who does not care at all like school, social life and home life. His mother blamed on him too much and put a sign around his neck which might be embarrassing for him. What the mother and her son should do is get counseling to help solve why his son don't care any more. He might have learning disability and he need help with that. Yeah, get counseling for both of them. That would solve the problem. Right? :hmm:
 
Or the kid could just be a lazy brat.

Who knows? If my son had an LD, this would have been determined before he had a 1.22 GPA...good grief, this kid needs a reality check.

They've offered help, asked to see homework, grounded, lectured him and confiscated his cell phone.
Click to expand...
 
To the TheOracle. Why are you being sooooo negative about things that don't make any sense to us? **scratch my head** You are a big puzzle to me. :confused:
 
Bebonang said:
To the TheOracle. Why are you being sooooo negative about things that don't make any sense to us? **scratch my head** You are a big puzzle to me. :confused:
Click to expand...

She likes attention and does not differentiate positive and negative.

Hopefully Jillio will get back in time to have a look at this. :lol:
 
Bottesini said:
She likes attention and does not differentiate positive and negative.

Hopefully Jillio will get back in time to have a look at this. :lol:
Click to expand...

Ah, I hope so with Jillio trying to figure her out. I don't understand her at all. Whew! :hmm:
 
Believe what she meant was...if her son had a GPA of 1.22...she would "school" him herself...and if the boy actually had LD (learning disability) it would have been caught before he was a teenager...then again, some kids fall thru the cracks...the teachers just keep passing them up to get them out of their classes the next year...

Would not surprise me if this teenager doesn't have a mental melt-down....dunno if the mother thought of taking him to the doctor for a complete health physical....then perhaps to Child Guidance (psychologist)...he desperately needs someone that he can relate & talk to that understands what he is going thru....my guess also that the kid is not very "sociable"...low self-esteem.

I would stop short of calling him a "lazy brat" tho'....perhaps the kid needs to be on some kind of anti-depressants.
 
Had a teacher totally go through my son's work in the last 2-3 weeks. I was really wanting to get some things cleared up. Even thought he is technically in 9th grade, he has tested at 11th grade in most things and college level in others, but 9th grade in math. They also, with taking all of his books and papers and such for this 9th grade year and last year which I had thought was 8th grade, but Florida says is 9th grade, he checks out with a 3.48 GPA. Not bad for a kids who hates school and only does lesson for 2-3 hours a day and then only 10-12 days a month.
 
Last edited:
Robin is right. I would never let it get to that point...so I'd never be in that position this woman is in. I'm not judging her unfairly, I'm just speaking from what I know of myself as a parent and as a teacher.

Bebo, why do you always have to see the negative in me? It makes no sense. Many people had a negative viewpoint of this mother. I simply said the kid could just be a brat. We don't know. We are not there. So we can't judge this mother.

I work with teens...in and out of the classroom. Teenagers are natural brats. :) It's part of growing up.

finally, what does Jillio have to do with it? :crazy:
 
KristinaB said:
Had a teacher totally go through my son's work in the last 2-3 weeks. I was really wanting to get some things cleared up. Even thought he is technically in 9th grade, he has tested at 11th grade in most things and college level in others, but 9th grade in math. They also, with taking all of his books and papers and such for this 9th grade year and last year which I had thought was 8th grade, but Florida says is 9th grade, he checks out with a 3.48 GPA. Not bad for a kids who hates school and only does lesson for 2-3 hours a day and then only 10-12 days a month.
Click to expand...

Kristina, it sounds like you are doing an awesome job with your son! I can't remember if you said that all of your kids are homeschooled, or just this one?
 
Back
Top