7th grader punished for bad grades by having to tell everyone about it.

my mother's appeoach was simple: she was done with school, my grades were my problem. now, whether or not i was treated like an A Student at home was another matter entirely. it was always her contention that i should play at least as hard as i worrk

 

I hope the kid is actually capable of getting better grades and the "class clown" thing isn't done to cover up something like an undiagnosed learning disability.

 

A more effective way is to go to school with your kid if he is failing. Take one day off from work and go to his school. Teachers love the idea. A kid does not want a parent to sit with him in his classroom. Very embarrassing and I'll bet the grades will start to rise.

 

How old is 7th grade?

If I was at any age capable or thinking myself capable of holding my own in a fist fight with my dad I would have told him to fuck off.

if I was something like 10 or 12 I would have had to take it, but I would have spent probably the next three years hating them.

 

You, Sir, are the only man on the planet that makes me realize the slight flaw in the universally accepted truth that "fighting solves everything."

 

Well, Im not saying it would be a good idea. But if someone did that to me at age 15 thats probably how I would react.

Im the kind of person who its easy to manipulate into doing anything by being nice, but who responds with fits of petulance, temper, and possible violence when I feel someone is trying to bully me or intimidate me.

Whether its was the time I stripped off my shirt and threw it in the face of a teacher in the middle of class because he kept having a go at me for it not being tucked in properly (and then stormed out and by the time I calmed down realised I had to walk home bare chested), or the time I the time I stole a supply teachers shoes, dropped them in a urinal and pissed all over them because he cheated against my team in a basketball lesson... when I was a schoolkid I was quite a naughty bastard sometimes.

 

7th grade is going to be between 11 and 13 years old, depending on when the birthday falls in the year.

 

It depends, maybe they aren't good at those subjects. Maybe they have too many distractions at home or school to deal with? Maybe the culture at the school isn't good... Maybe it is a problem with how they are teaching? Maybe they should look into what the kid wants to do? There is a lot missing for me to figure out if it is right or effective.

I'm sure this happens a lot though, and when I was in school one math teacher charted our grades against each other. Not the actual scores, just how we ranked. Looking back, I don't know if that was motivation or discouragement for the bottom third of the class.

 

That the parents did it as a last resort would, in my opinion, need to include all the info-gathering that has been suggested by previous posters, and that teachers and professionals has been consulted. Somehow I doubt that that was the case.