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Actually, I suggested he might work for a year and I also mentioned the military option for the experience and discipline he needed. Coming from a small rural school to a major university was also part of the equation.

You're in a difficult position because you have to walk such a fine line between knowing what he should be doing, and realizing that he has to develop the maturity to make his own decisions. Things like this will often work out in the long run.

I once worked for a guy who had a son in a similar situation. The kid barely made it through high school, then spent a couple of years drifting from one menial job to another. He ended up working at a gas station just because he wanted to work on his car during off-hours, and from that he learned some good automotive skills. A friend of my boss recognized the kid's skills and suggested he could get him into a top-rated school for airplane mechanics. The kid gave it a shot, and after a few months of school his instructors told him that he was capable of far more than just the hands-on mechanical stuff.

To make a long story short . . . he eventually got through one of the top aeronautical engineering programs in the world, and the last I heard he was one of the leading avionics experts for one of the big U.S. airlines.