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Who Cares About School?

Who Cares About School?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   2.36

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    confidence, grounded, reality, specialist, social, successful, swallowed, counselor, prison, architect, working, smith, praise, doing, lock, self

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Who Cares About School?
By Patti Hutchison 		  
1     Jim was worried. He'd been called to the principal's office. Today was the day they announced who was on AP, academic probation. Students on AP were failing two or more subjects. They weren't allowed to play sports and had to go to a special study room during study halls and activity period. The other kids called it "lock up." Jim was sure that's where he was headed. But he'd just have to tough it out. "Who cares about school, anyway?" he thought.
 
2     Jim was prepared for the worst. He had heard Mr. Smith yelling at kids before. It would be okay; he'd just tune him out and get through it. It was almost time to go home. He could take it.
 
3     But when Jim arrived at the principal's office, he was surprised. Mr. Smith didn't seem mad. He patted Jim on the back and led him into the office. Mr. Ellis, the learning specialist, and Mr. Allen, the guidance counselor, were sitting there. Jim swallowed hard and sat down.
 
4     "I guess you know why you were called here," Mr. Smith began. "You are failing social studies and science. Can you tell us why you are failing?"
 
5     Jim thought it would be best to be honest. "I don't really care about school," he told them. "I tried really hard in grade school to get good grades. But I never did. I finally gave up. I figure I'll graduate and get a job. The place where I work won't know I got bad grades."
 
6     "What kind of a job do you want to have?" Mr. Allen asked.
 
7     "Well, I've always wanted to be an architect," Jim said. "But I know you have to go to college for that. That's not for me. So, I figure I'll just get a job working for a construction company. I guess that's the next best thing."
 
8     "What's going to happen when your report card comes in the mail?" Mr. Smith asked Jim.

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