The wrong path

I've made it no secret throughout my blog that Jay has struggled in school.  It appears Nick is struggling as well but I can't quite get a good handle on Nick.  First of all he's had a substitute teacher the entire year until about two weeks ago.  Jay had such a strong first grade teacher and I'm afraid that has not been Nick's experience.  Plus I can't figure out how much Nick actually isn't getting.  He is exceptionally verbal and his vocabulary is outstanding.  He has such a hunger to learn too.  I know his focus/attention is an issue but I'm not sure I'm ready to "cross that bridge" quite yet - until we've exhausted other options.  My heart broke for Nick tonight.  We had a sort of "Coming to Jesus" with Nick tonight and he was sad as he told us he feels he's going down the wrong path at school and he can't keep up with everyone else.  See what I mean about the verbalization?  Once we can get Nick to calm down and be serious he expresses himself quite well and honestly his silliness may be his coping mechanism.  I used my favorite saying which Jay can finish for me before I even start, "It's not how you start the race, it's how you finish it."  Thank you, mom!  Plus I like to add some humor to things and use Phil Robertson's famous line, "The world doesn't need a bunch of straight A students, I was a C average student myself."  Love that Duck Dynasty!  In a world where scores and statistics are everything, our children can often feel as much in the "rat race" as we adults do and we are adults, they are only children.  I have my faults and I have and continue to make mistakes but I know without a doubt that my children's hearts may break a little in school but they always have open arms and loving hearts to come home to.