School began last week for Jamal, and I gave him a call before he started to discuss the new school year.
"So what are your goals for this year?"
"To pass."
I almost hit the ceiling when he replied. After all, we had been through this too many times for him to still think that just passing is actually a respectable goal. I chuckled a bit, hesitated, and then repeated myself. Maybe he just didn't understand the question. It wasn't until he quickly said that his goal was "to get nineties in all of my classes" that I realized he was actually joking with me. Good, so he has heard me. Of course, he immediately asked about what kind of loot I was going to bless him with for such a great achievement. Yeah, I don't like it either, but I have to get him moving somehow. I told him to give me some ideas, and that DVDs and video games are off limits. For now he has settled on a remote controlled airplane. I think he was really impressed by the models he saw flying around during the afternoon that he spent with my father. I made sure that he understood that a lot of those planes were beyond my budget for the prize. On my trip back from Hawaii, I was briefly tempted by the flimsy plastic R/C airplanes offered in this month's SkyMall catalog, but I'm probably going to have to do better than that if Jamal actually rises to the occasion.
"So what are your goals for this year?"
"To pass."
I almost hit the ceiling when he replied. After all, we had been through this too many times for him to still think that just passing is actually a respectable goal. I chuckled a bit, hesitated, and then repeated myself. Maybe he just didn't understand the question. It wasn't until he quickly said that his goal was "to get nineties in all of my classes" that I realized he was actually joking with me. Good, so he has heard me. Of course, he immediately asked about what kind of loot I was going to bless him with for such a great achievement. Yeah, I don't like it either, but I have to get him moving somehow. I told him to give me some ideas, and that DVDs and video games are off limits. For now he has settled on a remote controlled airplane. I think he was really impressed by the models he saw flying around during the afternoon that he spent with my father. I made sure that he understood that a lot of those planes were beyond my budget for the prize. On my trip back from Hawaii, I was briefly tempted by the flimsy plastic R/C airplanes offered in this month's SkyMall catalog, but I'm probably going to have to do better than that if Jamal actually rises to the occasion.
Before we ended, I pressed him for some details on his plan for the quarter.
"How are you going to get these great grades all of the sudden?"
A good response would take considerable insight into what has been going wrong, as well as an understanding of how excellent students get it done, so I was very curious as to what exactly he would have to say.
"I'm going to do my homework and pay attention in class"
Pretty basic stuff, but I guess it can make a big difference if you haven't tried it yet. I'll see what's up when the progress reports come out in 5 weeks.
