what age?

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Home : 2003 : January : 29

what age?
By Julianne

You don't say what grade this is. If it's lower elementary, then I would tend to agree with Mom. Children under the age of about 10 should believe that schoolwork must be completed. They either do the assignment at school
or they take it home and do it at home. From fourth grade on it makes sense to have the student make some choices. By that age the kids have figured out that they really do have a choice of whether to do something, so there's no sense pretending they don't. You might point that fact out to the parent. This child is making a choice (a bad one) and will suffer a consequence. That's the way

real life works.

The larger issue here is why he's failing. Mom says he feels overwhelmed and helpless. Could this be depression? If this was a child in my room I would be looking into that possibility. Do you have access to a psychologist, therapist or social worker? Could you suggest to Mom that the child needs to be evaluated by his doctor to rule out depression? He may very well be capable, but if he's not succeeding there must be a reason.