My daughter went through a phase where she was like this, when she started middle school. It started off ok but then spiraled downhill once the work ramped up. It was awful. Luckily she has an IEP and the school was willing and able to help micromanage her. On a certain level i'm sure she cared that she was failing (one class in particular) becasue she wasn't doing the work, but on the other hand she didn't care at all. For her, failing wasn't really a consequence, other than the fact that she didn't like people mad at her. But it was easier to have people mad than to figure out how to focus and get things done. If it wasn't for her school services, and being able to get things done in the special ed room with supervision (vs. unmedicated at home), it would have been a disaster. You have to find a balance between accommodating and consequences. I don't think the consequence should be failing if for the kid, it just gets them off the hook. If given a choice between doing something hard and getting an F, some kids are going to choose the F. They just don't care that much. So then what. They learn they got an F and life goes on, onto the next F? They don't learn anything other than they can avoid work and get away with it. A better way to do things may be to find a good motivator, like if he can maintain A's or B's for a couple weeks or months, he gets something he really wants. And then he will also learn that if he works hard he can do it and get some satisfaction from a job well done.
