Growing up in Concord, North Carolina, just outside Charlotte, Jacob Palmer was a classic academic achiever. "I was a good student," he said in an interview with Fortune. "In high school, I participated in all types of extracurriculars, student leadership, I did a lot of public speaking. I had all sorts of friends." But he said something changed during the pandemic. "School looked drastically different doing online classes and Zoom calls. It felt very intangible." He said he figured out pretty quickly that online college "didn't work for me. I hated it."
"Currently struggling with a kid who has no desire to do well in school and doesn't care they fail," the parent wrote. "Shows no desire to get to school on time. It's impossible for them to get their schoolwork done on their own and do not take initiative until I have to intervene. Doing this daily is becoming impractical (the days I don't intervene - nothing gets done) and I am hoping for the day they have the sense of urgency to take ownership."