«Help, our pubescent daughter thinks everything is stupid!»

Your daughter is doing what many teenagers do at this age: making fun of her teachers, making fun of her parents, making fun of pretty much everything. It's called puberty. It's difficult to give advice from the outside without knowing whether your daughter still has many years of school ahead of her or will soon be starting an apprenticeship. However, from my own experience with two teenagers, I can tell you that parents are needed as a source of friction during this time. Get on your daughter's nerves. Seek dialogue, again and again. Let them know the rules, for example: Homework or no mobile phones.

It's normal for school to take a back seat at this stage and for other things to take centre stage. After all, your daughter is doing the bare minimum, so her grades are average, but not unsatisfactory. As long as your daughter doesn't have to apply for a job with this certificate, you can allow her this minimalism and give her a little more confidence. Don't raise your index finger, refrain from pushing and nagging and instead talk to your daughter calmly. Ask curiously what she wants to achieve later on - and what effort is needed and when to get there.

I can't think of a motivational trick that I could explain in a few lines. However, I wouldn't know any if I had a few pages at my disposal. School is also a cramp, if not in all subjects, then certainly in some. At least there are grades as an extrinsic motivating factor. Ultimately, your daughter will probably also care about them. Offer her concrete support, e.g. from a cool tutor, and practise equanimity.

