Friday, April 23, 2010

A month or so ago, I sat on this blog, and wrote about how upset and concerned I was about my son's sub par performance in school. His grades were low, his attitude was a bit lax, and he seemed unusually disinterested in school. Part of that was on him, part of that was on his mother, and part of that was on me (more of it was on his mother though).

The weekend after I found out about this, he came to stay with me, and everyone he came in contact with, from me, to my brother, to my father, to my mother, got in his ass about the importance of doing well in school. We all explained that school was his ONLY job, and there was no excuse for him to be putting out a less than stellar product. Then I explained to his mother, that since she refuses to grant me custody, that there are tactics she needs to put in place to help her son improve. Just asking, "Did you do your homework?" is the laziest parental trick in the book. Its like asking an athlete a yes or no question..you get much more out of asking the type of question that generates discussion.

On my end, I annoyed the sh*t out of my son's teachers, I got copies of lessons and homework assignments, and I became THAT parent that teachers talk about in the lounge (I know this because when I taught I did the same). I know at least one of my son's teachers never wants to see my first and last name pop up in her inbox again, but she will and she will get over it. Anyway, all of these tactics must have worked, because my son got his report card the other day and he had all "As" and one "B". As soon as he got home, he gave me a call, read each of his grades to me, and then he asked if I was proud of him. I said hell yes, and then I asked him how HE felt, and he said he felt proud as well. And then I told him that the key for him is to maintain that excellence, because anything less would not be tolerated.

This is probably not a big deal to any of you people reading this, but it is a VERY big deal to me. I tend to skew negative, humorous and borderline angry on here sometimes, so I need to write about stuff like this sometimes to even things out. Plus its very apropos since he's arriving tonight, as we get ready to embark on our Penn Relays extravaganza.

4 comments:

Checkmymelonie said...

Congratulations to your son. You are right. It's amazing how some parents will let their kids lapse in school, as if an education is nothing important. And kudos to you for keeping him on track!

nichole said...

way to go, carlton!
when you put your mind to a task and have a strong support system like your father and his family, you can accomplish anything you want to.

those of us who read your dad's blog are very proud of what you've done and hope you keep up the good work.

games, clothes, cell phones, and even friends come and go, but you'll always have your own mind.

great job!

Janelle said...

Awww I'm sooo proud of YC!!! I could almost cry (yeah I'm emotional these days...sue me! hahaha)

If there were more parents like you, I might still be in the education field. And yes, I'd still be talking about parents like you in the teacher's lounge. hahahahahaa

Enjoy the weekend. You and YC both deserve it.

Raydiance said...

This is awesome Rashad! Make sure you keep in contact with his teachers, and I know you'll keep the pressure on Carlton.