How would you address this issue? a 17yr.old boy goofs off in school and never does his homework. HOwever,?

Being a dumb-*** and making bad choices does not translate into being gifted. I goofed off in school and did very little homework too. I was a dumb-***. After experiencing how hard it was to get anywhere in life, I went back to college at age 28 with a full time job and a family to support. I had a 3.99 GPA because I was paying for my education. Give up the drugs and get busy. You are only screwing yourself. I have 2 Daughters and they have been raised to think of their schooling as their full time job. I am not beyond putting a foot in their ***** if they take a wrong turn. I also give them all of my love and support. It seems to be working quite well.

He won't be put in honors classes if he's failing all of them.

Here's what I do as a teacher. I work out an incentive system with the parents to encourage my failing or almost-failing students to work harder. For example, if he gets an allowance, increase it as his grades increase. Maybe also set a deadline, like "I want you to have B's and C's by winter break," and if he meets the goal, plan something special with him (like a trip to an amusement park or something). Longer term goals could be, at his age, helping him get a car.

As the parent, you have WAY more control over your child's success than any teacher does. The first thing you need to do is contact his teachers and work a plan out with them.

well, if he has F's he's not gonna graduate.. he will have to make up all those classes.
Have the school counselor talk to him...
maybe he needs to see a personal counselor and figure out why he's so smart, yet throwing it all away on drugs.....

He needs to be challenged...he sounds bored. Maybe a different school, or moving on to college with a higher standard where it won't be so easy for him to buck authority/avoid study.

If he is an F student maybe you want to ask him does he want to graduate, or does he plan to make HS his career?

Address the drugs, he is still a minor there are laws know they all think not me but it can happen.

If he is gifted like you say then maybe you should have him tested then they can place him in classes that won't bore him, he might get F's because he is bored. More then likely at his age, he doesn't care about much except drugs, girls and keeping his parents off his back.

I would as pickynancy1234 said GET HELP!!!

Good luck!

Sounds like me. And if he's anything like me, you can do nothing. Except, he likes history, right? Go do history stuff with him, and give him alot of support. And try to get him off drugs, but don't be a hard-*** about it. Maybe he doesn't understand about life yet. Make him get a job. A real one. This summer, then in his senior year, explain he'll be doing the manual **** for the rest of his life if he doesn't go to college. I should know.

So he paces finals sounds like a bunch of people that I know who are either lazy or the work is too easy on them and they need more of a challenge. Some of them smoke weed but others are clean. It depends though, maybe change schools so he can be in a more challenging environment but if there is more to him and there is huge evidence that he is a danger to himself maybe a counselor can help.

I don't know if you can get his attention when he's not on drugs but someone needs to show him what his options really are and how his present behavior will almost certainly affect where he is and the quality of every aspect of the rest of his life. Does he ever want a good job, wife, kids, a house, ....

Get him to see that every day whatever he wants becomes more and more unlikely unless he can change now.

it's his life... let him live it.

He's 17 and there's not much you can do.
He may need to be in honors classes; he's probably bored out of his mind.

He sounds like me in high school. GET HIM HELP!

If I was 17 i would be into him. I recommend GED--that's what worked for the kid at my school who was that way. He is interested in engineering.

Give him a spanking and off to dinner with no din din.

17 and at school ?

you let him live his life, you can change him. If you try you will probably make it worse and encourage him to do more bad things. he will change through time if people around him leaves him be.

Reminds me of someone i know and by the time he reached hes 20 yrs he went back got hes GED and is recently in college.

Don't try to change people, they'll do it on thereselves overtime if they decide.

My son was an f student and would fall asleep in class and it was so bad the guidance counselor didn't want him in school. H wasn't really living with me anymore being that he was 17 and thought he was grown. He got into drugs and alcohol and was going downward. After giving my son several chances to straighten up I decided to take him out of school and send him to the community college for the high school/GED program and then I "encouraged" him to enlist into the Army. He needed the discipline that they offer.