What to do with a boy...

As I mentioned, Thomas had a not so good report card. So, I am being proactive and asked his teacher to send home his journals so I could gauge what needs work. Seems like all of his work needs work. Oh, except math, he got an A, 92% on his math test. He got a C+ on his English test. His journals have notes all over them from the teacher asking for more details, to be more specific. He knows they say that. He knows what she is looking for. He just doesn't do it. She mentioned they had a conversation today about his work and she asked him why he didn't want to do better work. He told her he didn't like school. She asked if there was anything at all he did like about school and he said playing with his friends. She said he teared up a little when talking about it. That scares me. I asked him later tonight, while we were laying in bed talking about his new plan to write in a journal every day, I asked him if everything was okay at school. He said it was. I asked him why he told his teacher he didn't like school and he said he didn't know why he said that, but he really DOES like school. There is more to this story that I am going to have to suss out somehow.

I thought he might be bored. I thought he might feel like the questions that were being asked were just dumb. I have realized he is just like me. When I was a kid I did the bare minimum too. I never got satisfaction from doing more than what was required of me, so I didn't do it. He is exactly the same. If he finishes the work that is good enough for him. He doesn't have to do it great or more or bigger than anyone else, he just has to finish it. How do you teach someone to care more about something? Am I going to have to wait until college and he can study what he is actually interested in? Will he be able to write a paper then if he can't do it now in third grade?