Question
I have two sons (13 and 14 years old) and one step son (12 years old). They've gone to a Christian school their whole lives and are all saved. My issue is with my 13 year old. He is very smart as shown by scoring well on national tests. He went through a period at a previous school where a teacher and 3 classmates bullied him. The teacher has since been fired and we changed christian schools. Now my son has issues with not trying in school resulting with barely passing grades and he also stays in trouble mostly because of excessive talking in class with some talking back to the teachers. I've taken electronics away with the option to earn them back. I spank everytime that he makes a zero for not doing homework, I get an email from a teacher for behavior issues, or if he blows a test for not studying. He also loses his electronics until he can go 5 consecutive school days without failing at one of the above 3 items. I am also planning to not let him play basketball this season unless he can pull his grades up (he's quite the athlete). I'm only focusing on these three issues. I also praise him each time for his victories no matter how small. I've offered to get him an iPhone X if he can turn things around and sustain it for 2 months straight. With this being said, he still doesn't seem to have any ambition or desire to work towards a goal or reward. My question is, "How can I get him motivated to work towards a goal and to take grades and behavior seriously?".
