He cannot get off the conveyor belt; he may as well enjoy the ride.

     As sixth grade begins Tom understands the routine.  Every year he gets a year older, every year he moves up with the class.  Every year the classes get harder and his grades never improve.  He gets remediation time with the other kids who are behind.  Tom realizes that nothing seems to change, so why bother trying harder.  Tom is on a conveyor belt designed and controlled by adults.  He might as well ride along.  What happens is up to them.
     Sixth grade is different.  Tom now knows what to expect.  He also knows that despite his efforts every fall to improve his grades in order to avoid removal from specials in the middle of the year, his efforts will fall short.  "Why try," he thinks to himself.  Tom makes the obvious choice; one might even say, the logical choice.  Since this is all out of his control, he may as well forget about trying so hard.  A year from now he will enter seventh grade, followed by eighth and then high school. The conveyor belt will keep moving him along.
     Tom has not kept the required academic pace over the years set by the state standards, but he has learned how the system works.  Each year he is another year closer to eighteen.  History has shown Tom that he will not keep up with the academic pace set at school.  The additional hours of remediation stolen from the "specials" only served to narrow Tom's experiences at school.  School is not fun, but Tom concludes he has no choice but to survive it.  At eighteen he will leave; his mind is made up.  He has no idea what he will do when he leaves school and that's fine with him.  All that matters is that his time on the conveyor belt will be over.
     As sixth grade begins, Tom has concluded that he's just not smart enough to keep up in school.  It's a relief.  Tom can accept his reality.  As other kids work to keep up and do as they are told, Tom can relax and do what he likes.  The future is clear to Tom.  He will be done when he is eighteen; from now until then, he just needs to get through each day.  He cannot make time move faster or slower.  He cannot get off the conveyor belt; he may as well enjoy the ride.