Any tips on getting a teenager to get his grades in line?

[ChrisMC]

We have tried everything...this is a smart kid who won't do his work. My wife and I both work and he has younger siblings which makes it tough to be on top of him as much as I should be. We have taken away XBox and TV and offered him a phone as a reward, nothing. If he keeps on his current track he will go from an honor student to being kept back in 8th grade. I'm trying to relay to him the consequences of having a poor high school career, but of course he's not hearing it.

[QuadShot]

Chris, what's at the heart of his issues? Why is he slacking now, when he used to be an honor student? Has there been some major event happen?

[ChrisMC]

Not really, he's just become extremely lazy. I know there's an interest in girls that has come onto the scene recently, and I know that can be a distraction. Just having a hard time getting him to care, and of course he lies and says he did the work or whatever. I guess I could sit him down and stand behind him for hours but that's ridiculous.

[Bromptonboy]

Ours are still young (11 and 10), and we haven't gotten into that age yet.  My brother and his wife have 4 kids - and the eldest is a boy.  He was sort of the same way your son sounds - very bright but starting to slack off - and both parents couldn't devote the time to stay on top of him constantly.  Their solution was to 'out-source' the pressure on him, by sending him to a very good local private prep school for boys (they have the $'s for this path  - I don't..).  My brother's wife used to say that 'He is lazy, and I don't have the energy to stay on him, so I will put him in a place where it is not cool to be a slacker'.  This worked very well for them.
What we all need is to be able to do a 'Back To the Future' moment where our future selves go back and shake some sense into our teenage selves..  :)

[X]

He might be bored. See if that's the case. If it is, get him tested for better classes. I learned early on that class moves only as fast as the slowest person in the class and if you're at the top, you have to either get a harder class or push yourself to not be bored. When I was that age, I had a similar problem and I felt like just being in class was insulting my intelligence. My father's solution was kind of like solitary confinement at first then it was something that worked.

He told me the that I was expected to make certain grades and there would be "consequences" if I didn't. I was to nervous to ever find out what they were. I still slacked off, but I did just enough work to not have him breathing down my neck.

[ChrisMC]

He might be bored. See if that's the case. If it is, get him tested for better classes. I learned early on that class moves only as fast as the slowest person in the class and if you're at the top, you have to either get a harder class or push yourself to not be bored. When I was that age, I had a similar problem and I felt like just being in class was insulting my intelligence. My father's solution was kind of like solitary confinement at first then it was something that worked.

He told me the that I was expected to make certain grades and there would be "consequences" if I didn't. I was to nervous to ever find out what they were. I still slacked off, but I did just enough work to not have him breathing down my neck.

He is in advanced classes. And it's not that he can't keep up...he actually tests pretty well, it's the extra work and projects and things like that he slacks off on. And he does want to start ROTC next year which might give him some focus, but he has to get out of Junior High yet.