Is This Mike On?

The look on his face tells me he doesn’t believe me.

Sure, I can be anything I want to be, dad. That’s a knee slapper. He stares back at me from his position on the chair.

No you can, if you’re willing to do the work, I insist. Still not even a glimmer of belief.

A little bit later, we’re sitting side by side at the table. I’m using my iTouch and he’s staring at a paper he’s supposed to write. Five minutes later, he’s still staring.

It’s time for a different approach. OK, son. Let’s suppose you give up and refuse to do the work in school. You won’t get the grades, which means you won’t earn the credits and then you won’t graduate.

Now let’s see what jobs are available for high school dropouts. Unless you’re lucky enough to work in a factory moving screws from belt to another for eight hours a day for the rest of your life, you will probably make minimum wage. At that rate, you can figure on an average of less than $300 a week and maybe $1,200 a month.

Now assuming you can get a job, because employers aren’t salivating over high school dropouts, let’s figure out your average monthly expenses. By now, I have the calculator out punching in numbers.

Let’s start with rent at maybe $700 if you’re lucky.

Utilities: $70

Heating: $200 in the winter

Car insurance: $100 or more

Food: $150 to $300 a month depending on the size of your family.

We go through each of the basic expenses for the family and quickly figure out that at his current wage, he can be as much as $2,000 in the hole.

And that’s assuming there is no car repairs.

Or nobody needs to go to the hospital.

Or the car doesn’t require registration fees.

Suddenly homework doesn’t look so bad, does it?

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