Gun Running

There’s this kid in my class who has been a total dead weight. He doesn’t pay attention. No work is turned in. Effort is not given. If academic failure was a pizza, then this kid is the works. It has been like this since the start of school.

Correction, these past few days have been different. Now he’s raising his hand on every question, except when he has fallen asleep of course. But in his defense he’s trying to fight off the slumber. Before he would drag himself to his desk, dropping books and papers along the way, and plop down for an instant siesta. Now his head jerks every time he starts to fade until the good fight has been fought. All his work is being turned in too, and by the text-style spelling and sometimes substituting little stick figure pictures to answers question that’s a feat in itself.

Curious, I asked him why the turn of a new leaf. He enthusiastically shared that his mom’s new boyfriend, who he thought was kind of a douche (his word, not mine), was actually doing something cool and offered to take the boy to an upcoming gun show if he passed all his classes this semester.

I can see how that would motivate him. Every day he comes in wearing a t-shirt that pays homage to some sort of instrument of death. Some are covered with images of bloody swords and skulls, others have what look like pictures that could have come out of a coffee table book about automatic rifles. My favorite t-shirt though has to be the one that says, “My Other Gun is a Flamethrower.”

Anyway, I guess one of the classes he’s have trouble with is math. This kid has flunked the first two grading periods. He is mathematically eliminated from any firearm fieldtrip. But hey, it’s nice to see him motivated. Yes, he’s motivated by the efficient killing styles of a crossbow, but I’ll take what I can get. Let’s hope he takes bad news well.