Holding breath, but Quinn is having a decent week at school. His detention for missing too many hours (see a couple entries down) was reduced from 33 hours to 18 hours. I am still disappointed that he has to do detention at all for excused illnesses, but was very happy that the school was willing to meet us in the middle. Quinn was mad that he didn't get out of detention entirely, but I tried to explain to him that meeting us in the middle was the best we would get considering we're up against a state requirement, not a school requirement. I am trying to get him to realize that you don't have to roll over and take whatever crap the world dishes out to you... but some things are worth fighting all the way and other things you just hope to reach some middle ground on so you don't feel like you got your butt handed to you, and you move on.
He met with his guidance counselor about his classes next year, and actually signed up for AP classes for once. Thank goodness! I got a call from his English teacher last week saying that Quinn had refused to do a research paper that was assigned. I knew he was planning not to do the paper, and I told him that he could take that up with his teacher (figuring he would just do the paper when faced with that option). Well, apparently he told his teacher that he was just not going to write the paper because her class was all review for him anyway. BRAT! I felt really bad for this poor English teacher who was on the phone with me. She is about my age, and it sounded like she had never had a kid say that to her before. She said (and this is a direct quote) "I... like... don't know what to do." She said that he drives her insane because he refuses to do work that is not worth his time, but when he does do an assignment it gets done in half the time it takes his classmates and he gets 100%. So frustrating. He told me yesterday that he actually feels sort of bad about giving her a hard time because she is really upset about the paper and offered to extend the deadline if he would just do it. The point is, everyone knows he needs to be in AP classes so that the work is more challenging, but he was refusing to sign up for the classes because he likes being able to skate by. So I guess his counselor nabbed him today and told him he needs to get his crap together and start doing college prep work. She also pointed out to him that his sophomore PSAT scores were only 20 points lower than a couple kids from the school who went on to become National Merit Scholars, so he has a great shot at something like that if he decides to work hard.
The fact that he signed up for AP classes indicates that he is making plans for next year and has abandoned the GED idea again (at least for this week) and I can breath a sigh of relief. I really didn't ever want him to get a GED when he obviously has a lot of opportunities ahead of him, but sometimes I get so overwhelmed dealing with his attitude and anger over school every single day that I just want to give up. Quinn's always been much stronger willed than I am, and I hate being in the position of trying to manage his life when he's so damn stubborn. I see so many similarities between him and my mom- the "my way or the highway" attitude, the stubborn streak. I feel 50 something dealing with him sometimes when I am really 32, and I am just TIRED of the constant fight over this. Jeff says if I let Quinn get his GED right now, he will just blame me later for allowing him to drop out of high school and messing up his opportunities. I know that he is right, so I just try to give Quinn a cooling off period after something like the detention thing happens, and if I can make a call or go down to the school to smooth things out I will. I just hope things become easier sometime soon, because if not for Jeff's constant reminders I might have given up the fight by now. I just tell myself 2 more years to get him through high school. That said, I really do love the school he goes to. For having as many kids as they do, they are really receptive to giving Quinn the attention he needs- the counselors both years have shown a ton of follow through in working with him to keep him interested in school and now hopefully get him thinking along the lines of college, and the assistant principle was great about being willing to reduce his detention hours to help give him a little attitude boost.
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