I have this student, part 2

His name is Florentin. He’s in my 5eme class this year, but he was also in my 5eme class last year. He is reasonably smart, but with about two months left of school, he just stopped coming to all his classes. I don’t even remember if he took his exams at the end of the year. But regardless, here we are, doing the same song and dance that he and I did last year.

This year, though, he’s been named one of the leaders of the class. I was surprised, but hoped that the responsibilities that come with the role would keep him coming to class this time. They have, but the thing is, he’s beginning to care more about his responsibilities of being the leader than his responsibilities of being a student.

Instead of taking notes, he writes down the names of all the students who are chatting. Instead of listening to my lectures, he’s asking his friends which students are absent that day. With 15 minutes left of class, he asks to go take down the flag.

All these things are things that he legitimately has to do now. But, how do I convince him that there are other responsibilities while he’s at school that are more important than his newly-found ones? How do I convince him that watching all his classmates is not as important as the notebook sitting in front of him?