You’re staying indoors this week, babysitting your younger sister and changing the litter box in the empty gap between school and sleep. Why? Your phone is missing, your Xbox is hidden somewhere in a cabinet too far up to reach and tragically you’re not allowed to leave the house, all because…report cards came in yesterday.
You have a C+ in your Honors U.S. History course, although your teacher still decides to leave the comment “pleasure to have in class” on your report, and an F in Trigonometry, one point away from a D-, and your parents are on you about it.
“You haven’t been trying hard enough.”
“Maybe you need tutoring.”
“You’re too distracted with life outside of school.”
“Step it up.”
“If you don’t raise up your GPA, your car is gone.”
Or, you could get your classic “Math for Dummies” scripture thrown on your bed sheets as you walk in the front door.
Yes, maybe after school, I take a couple sips of a cold, icy Coke and relax on my best friend’s sofa as we discuss the upcoming drama awaiting the next day at school, but this doesn’t mean I’m not trying my best at academics. Parents commute to work daily, finish what’s to be done, and visit friends at their local bar and grill as well, but this doesn’t mean they’re reckless and unfocused.
I don’t plan to drop out, work at the front counter of Dairy Queen, and live in the same teal, closet-sized bedroom as my sister until I grow old, but I’m not pressuring myself either.
A failing grade on an assignment isn’t something to feel accomplished about or fear.
Tutoring could possibly be an option, but if the material I’m trying to grasp just simply isn’t clicking for me or it’s too fast paced, that’s not my inability to learn; that’s holding my chances down, it’s the way I’m being taught.
If a child isn’t throwing 150 percent into a class and their parents suggest tutoring, even if their grades are slipping, it can feel like a huge slap in the face.
It’s time to sit our parents down and we students throw reality in their faces instead, with respect of course.
Here’s my recommendation for a letter to break the news to your parents.
Dear parents,
If you’d like to help with my new-found low self-esteem combined with failing a quarter of Calculus, try to enforce positive motivation instead of removing time to cool off with friends.
Stress doesn’t lift up your GPA, it only strikes it down, as I pull my hair out, glancing once again at my Tigerview.
Realize that if I’m failing Consumers Ed, there is some room for concern, but if I’m simply failing an Earth and Space class I chose to take in my free period, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Point blank: my grades are my grades. My future is my future. And guess what?
It’s not the end of the world.
Thank you for being concerned, but seriously, without your heavy breaths down my neck and your screams racing through my mind as I scan over a quiz, I might be alright.
Love,
Me.
