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how do I get my 15 year old son motivated about school

I can't get my son motivated in assignments he always seem to waits for the deadline or things are overdue. He doesn't care about his grades and doesn't seem to want to acheive anything higher.

Question applies to ages: 15

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avatarJenny.eduguide
# of Thumbs Up Received (77)
Top 5 in: Discipline, Families and Relationships, Family Activities, Financial Aid for College, Growth and Development, Health and Wellness, Parenting Support, Parents and Schools, School Policy and Education Issues, Study Skills and Academics, Transitions and Readiness, Study Skills and Academic StrategiesTop 5 in 12 Topics		 I have a senior in high school this year and when she was that age the main reason it was hard to get her started on projects was because she couldn't see them as anything other than huge and very daunting tasks. So, what I would do was break her larger projects up into smaller ones.
We would put dates on the calendar to help with this. For example, if she had a book report due in a month. We would figure out how many pages she had to read a day to finish the book in three weeks. This still gave her one week to do the book report.
At first I had to really keep on her to meet these "mini" goals, but after a while she liked not always feeling the pressure of getting stuff done at the last minute and it helped her confidence too.
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avatarLizInHolt
# of Thumbs Up Received (78)
Top 5 in: Career Training, Choosing College, Depression and Mental Health, Discipline, Families and Relationships, Health and Wellness, Home Learning and Field Trips, Learning Disabilities and Special Needs, Learning Styles, Manners and Values, Parenting Support, Parents and Schools, Safety, School Policy and Education Issues, Setting Goals and Getting Motivated, Study Skills and Academics, Transitions and Readiness, Students' Civil RightsTop 5 in 18 Topics		 Motivation is a very difficult thing to create in someone else. It may be really helpful if you find a quiet time to just talk to your son about what he wants to be when he grows up. What kind of job does he want to have? What does he picture his life being like after high school?

Kids aren't very good at realizing that if they don't do well in school and go on to some form of additional training or education, they won't have a very easy life. The difference in life-time income for someone with and without a college degree is $1,000,000!!! There won't be any cool cars or nice homes or great clothes if he doesn't prepare himself for a decent-paying job. So if you talk about his dreams and what he wants his adult life to be like, it opens the door to talking about how to make those dreams come true. Not doing well in school and not getting advanced training or a degree after high school means so many, many doors will be closed to him. To open those doors, he'll need to do well in the rest of high school in order to get accepted into a post-high school program. Encourage him, but don't lecture him since teens tune those out.
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