Sitting here a bit frustrated at the end of another school day. The problem is that I don't know who to be frustrated with; the year 7 student with a reading and writing level of a grade 3 and the concentration span of a gnat, or the school system or that has thus-far failed him and continues to do so? This student has completed virtually no written work, or work of any other kind in any of his subjects. He is on literacy support, which appears to be helping him slightly with his reading but not with his spelling or grammar or writing in general, and the only way that he seems to do any written work is if it is a creative writing piece and he has the use of a computer.
Should I be angry, that this student is so weak and yet refuses to concentrate and make an attempt on his work, or is it not his fault, because, by the age of 12 he should have a skill base to draw on which he somehow has missed? I am concerned that this student will just become lost in the system and that he will leave school illiterate. He is not concerned because he is convinced that he will enter a trade when school has finished, but I would like to think that he will at least leave school with basic written communication skills. I don't think that enough has been done to enable this student to function. Has he been failed by his primary school for promoting him (after already keeping him down one year) from primary to secondary, or are we not helping in secondary school by continuing to promote him through the year levels despite a lack of work and a lack of interest in school in general?

On the other end of the spectrum is one of my senior students who is extremely capable, and manages to get fantastic marks with minimum effort. I questioned him today about why he does not put any effort into his work and he told me not to worry, because it wasn't just my class, but it was all of his classes. I asked him why he is content with doing the bare minimum and he told me that he is not interested in going to uni, he wants to do a tafe course (which is great if he knows what he wants to do) but he believes that because he doesn't need to go to uni, getting good marks is irrelevant to him, and therefore he does not try.
I suggested to him that wasn't it worth trying to be the best that he could be in everything he does rather than to spend his last couple of years of school mucking around and being bored? I told him about how I had had 2 part time jobs whilst I was studying, one after the other, and even though I knew that I was not going to be spending the rest of my life in retail positions, I did my best for the time I was there, and that this benefitted both my development, and the development of the company that I was working for. I don't understand how he can make a decision that he does not need school, that marks are irrelevant and that he is not going to challenge himself in any way at school!
Why does this make me so frustrated? Is it because I see other students trying really hard and yet still struggling? Is it because I want to see all of my students being the best that they can be? Or am I just wanting him to be interested and doing well because it feeds my ego to think that he is enjoying my class? Maybe I feel that he is taking his intelligence for granted? Am I expecting too much from a 16 year old? HELP!

(i did warn you there would be ranting!)