Encouragement
What should you do when your defiant teenager is bringing home failing marks and clearly lacks the drive for school? Your teenager has lost his motivation and as a parent you must help him restore it. Encouragement is vital to helping your teen get back on track, but nagging your child about his poor grades and lack of interest won’t get you anywhere near the right path. It can become a bad habit for some parents to equate “encouragement” with heavy lectures on how they think their teenager should act. As much as we want the very best for our children, it’s important to keep in mind that they are not our property. We may want to demand certain expectations from them but an approach like this may not be welcomed by a troubled teenager. Sometimes, even if a teen may actually agree with a certain rule or guideline of yours, they may end up rebelling just because you display it as a demand. Holding back can often be a tendency when another tries to grab something from him.

Aim towards Balance for a Productive Environment
On a lighter note, you can ironically picture your defiant, rebellious teen as a delicate butterfly. If you run around trying to grab it, it will fly vigorously away from you, farther and farther. But if you just stand still it may alight upon you, fluttering against your skin. Of course this does not mean that you should just let your defiant teen do whatever he wants. Disciplining your child is important as well, but it is more of a balance that we are after. What you should be working towards here is the most productive environment for your teenager. Either extreme of strict discipline or loose handling can work against your aim of getting your teen to work at his best.

Your Teenager’s Cooperation
As a parent, you must initially make it clear to your child that you are counting on his cooperation in maintaining good grades and a fair interest in his classes. Once he is aware of this and still brings back low marks, then you may opt to try creative ways of encouragement in order to fire up his lost interest in class. Some examples of creative encouragement could be finding out what topics in classes may be of interest to him and approaching them in a manner which he will embrace. If you must, you can even play on his love for sports in P.E. class if it will at least get him to school. From here, you can continue to encourage other subjects like art or music and work up to science or history. Take things slowly but surely in order to keep his interest and trust in you. Sometimes, suggesting the right track or path gently to your teen can actually make him aware of the right thing to do on his own.   

Utilizing Your Teen’s Passions
Useful tools in getting your child motivated in school again are his passions. If you’ve known your adolescent to be just crazy about sci-fi, why not use an approach where he may see how exactly sci-fi stories can take off from the facts of science? By starting off with a light approach you can be sure that your talks will not be met with aggression on your teenager’s part. In a way, it is like you’re coaxing your teen gently in your direction.

School-Related Hobbies
You may also refer to other school-related hobbies of your teen in order to get him interested in school again. If he is a part of the school baseball team, then normally its members are required to maintain a certain quality point average in order to stay on the team. If the sport is something he genuinely enjoys, he’ll make sure that his grades don’t falter enough for him to get kicked off. If your teen enjoys playing the saxophone in the school band, then you may try and use this as a window for motivation. Getting his interest started in any aspect of school can be vital in restoring his motivation to keep other areas afloat.

Experiencing Difficulty with Subject Matter
Sometimes, it is not actually a lack of interest or motivation your teen suffers from but difficulty with the subject matter. If your troubled teen won’t budge and keeps mum when you ask about how he is faring in class, then it’s important you find out somewhere. You could speak with the school counselor or his teacher in those subjects where he is receiving low or failing marks. A peer tutor may be most productive for your teen if you discover that it really is difficulty with the subject matter he is experiencing. This may prove more efficient than another kind of tutor because he may be more accepting of a tutor near his age than an adult. He may even blow off his tutoring sessions if you force them on him. With a peer tutor, in a way the atmosphere is more laid-back and relaxed, which is usually the ideal atmosphere for an adolescent to take in information.

It’s up to him
Finally, keep in mind that no matter how badly you want your child’s grades to get better, you can’t come to class and take his tests for him. After trying your best to help your teenager, it all comes down to him. If he persists to keep his doors and windows shut when you try to help him then maybe it’s time for him to speak with a counselor.