Homework?

[catrinp]

My boys are in high school. A private school. They are very active with sports - school runners club three morning a week, school sport training one afternoon a week, plus the game, sports training outside of school twice a week plus the game. One day a week is free of activities, not counting weekends that can be full or empty

Comments

[onyxflame]

Heh, my senior year of high school I had no official bedtime, and since by then I paid little or no attention to homework I'd just sit around listening to the radio and writing bad emo poetry. (Wait, was that redundant? :P) One night I stayed up until 2am, had to get up at 6:30 for school. At this point I decided having that little sleep sucked, and I wasn't staying up THAT late again, no matter what I was doing. :P

I wish I knew how to get kids to do homework, since I so rarely did it. I know what DIDN'T help me though.

A. My mom watching TV where I could hear it. Distracted the hell out of me then even if I didn't like the show that was on, and still does.

B. Constantly being told how I "wasn't living up to my potential". Well, if nothing I did satisfied anyone, why should I bother to do it? If they're not gonna be satisfied either way, I might as well do fun things during the time I ought to be working my ass off.

[catrinp]

Thanks, I understand completely. I appreciate your insight - I was a kid in highschool once, but somedays it seems so long ago

[onyxflame]

Well, as one of the "smart but lazy" kids, maybe I can shed some light on why your one son is behaving that way.

Basically he's thinking "if I do this good when I don't even try, why do I need to try harder?" That and "man this schoolwork is so easy it's boring". He's also not used to HAVING to exert effort, so when he encounters something that DOES challenge his abilities, he gets kinda lost and frustrated and is even less likely to exert effort than he was before. I'm not entirely sure how to change this, but you might try getting him involved in something that he has no natural aptitude for and see if it improves his work ethic. Or when he gets old enough, make him get a summer job or something. I know I'd be a lot better than I am now if I'd had a good work ethic instilled in me at a young age, but instead my life taught me that I either didn't need to work to get anything, or that no amount of work would actually accomplish anything.

[catrinp]

You're right and I have realised this, but haven't worked out how to change it