"I have a 12-year-old son, "Zach." Zach gets excellent grades, so I was stunned when one of his science assignments came back as a zero. I asked him what on earth happened, and he told me that it was a group assignment; the four of them were supposed to research, compile, and jointly present a report on different sources of energy production."
"He was sure that his grades will be good enough even if he bombed this assignment, so he just didn't do it! He actually was quite gleeful, expecting his three compatriots to fail the class, since he doesn't think they can absorb a significant loss the way he can. I don't even know how to deal with this. I've grounded him, but I can't get through to him that taking joy in other students' failing and harming his own grades to do so is super-troubling behavior."
A 12-year-old named Zach received a zero on a group science project after refusing to participate as retaliation against teammates who planned to ride on his work. The assignment required four students to research and jointly present on different sources of energy production. Zach believed his overall grades could absorb the loss and anticipated his peers would suffer academically. His parent grounded him and considered forced therapy because of concern over his apparent delight in others' failure. The columnist characterized the behavior as an age-appropriate response to feeling exploited rather than evidence of lasting cruelty or dangerous tendencies.
Read at Slate Magazine
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