Freshmen

High school freshmen are turning me gray, one hair at a time. I thought I had gotten my Pre-AP classes up to speed, and that they would actually study for tests, but apparently that's not the case. Last Friday's test was over the physical geography of the Middle East and they totally blew it. Not just in my class, either - all 6 PAP sections did very poorly because they didn't study.
I am not sure why so many kids are failing social studies classes. I am in charge of scheduling after-school tutoring for kids who fail 2 core courses, so I get to see how many fail what subjects. Although junior English and US History were high on the list, overall social studies had more failures than the other core subjects. Many of the students I talk to tell me they couldn't do my homework because they were doing math or science or English. Why do those subjects rank before mine in their eyes? I thought perhaps it was just me, but its across the board.
So now parents are calling and emailing, upset because little Bobby has always made As, and now he's doing well to get a C. I tell them what Bobby is supposed to be studying, where to find my study guides and testing schedule, and usually they realize that its not my fault. The kid either shouldn't be in PAP for one reason or another, or should prepare better for the test.
That still doesn't help solve the riddle of why they choose to let the social studies homework or studying go by the wayside and do the math or science instead. Maybe we'll never know.