Is It Too Late?

So today during 1st period, "T" told me that he didn't really want to work with the rest of his group on their powerpoint presentations that they are giving tomorrow. His reasoning was simple. He doesn't like his group members, and would rather get a zero. I didn't want to oblige and let him work with whom he wanted, because for one, I think that it would set a bad precedent. I also thing that it is important for "T" to learn to work with people that he doesn't like. His response was that he didn't care, and that he would not care if I gave him a zero. My building principal is very big on "teaching moments", so I decided to take "T" to the side for a bit to talk to him, and see what the deal was. He is in his second year of French, so I had him last year as well. He ended up teling me that he has other things going on that are more important than school, and it is not a priority for him (we had discussed this previously, so this line of argument wasn't new to me). He doesn't care if he passes, since he says will just take Spanish (he knows how to read, write, and speak it) next year to fulfill his graduation requrements. A lot of the times my kids are ambivalent about failing. I always try to spin by saying : if you don't like it the first time, then why would you put yourself through the hell of having to go through it again? "T" told me that he works 25 hours a week, so he doesn't have time to do really anything that involved out of school work. His parents have kicked him out of the house, and he is living with a friend in an apartment that is 30 minutes away from school. I told him that I know he is smart, and that I want to see him succeed. His plan is to get his diploma if it works out, and if not, he will just go and get his GED, eventually attending community college. He had previously stated that he didn't have any plans, so I told him that that was a good start. I just wanted him to know that I really do believe in him, and want him to do things in his life. I think that I was overly-sensitive to his situation, because I had just read in the January 30th edition of Newsweek that America's boys are falling behind at every level of education, and there doesn't seems to be an end in sight. After our 10 minute conversation, I am not really sure that much was accomplished, but I will be looking out for this kid for the rest of the year to make sure that he makes it through. In other news: tomorrow is the 2nd day of our "dog and pony show". Our school has being sprucing itself up to look good for the accrediation agency that is inspecting the building, staff, faculty, students, and classrooms. I'll be glad when it's all over. We have been forced to sit through 2 presentations about how we are to behave so that we can receive the highest possible rating. Funny how the administration always says they hate dog and pony shows, since people can see right through them...