RE: What to do if you hate school?
HOW TO SCUMMILY SCRAPE BY IN THE BROKEN SYSTEM THAT IS SCHOOL
Written by a National Merit finalist
1. If there is a class you like that you can spend a variable amount of time on and still get 100% (e.g. art), DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE of doing the minumum required and using class time for other class. It will drive you positively bonkers. Good classes are rare, savor them or rest even. Stressing 24/7 sucks supernova remnants.
2. DO NOT LISTEN to people saying you must study X amount. I never really studied in high school, absolutely didn't in elementary or middle. Don't even in college much, the difficulty seems rather overestimated tbh, though I've also been told ridiculous claims like "you are in the top .01%" (certainly doesn't feel like it) but it was likely only referring to memory skills. POINT IS, don't spend more time on anything than you need to. I used to put so much time and effort into assignments only to get the same grade as someone else. If you care, ABSOLUTELY put in that time and effort. If you realize it's pointless, you are already thinking more than most of the class, and some of those unthinking people are getting A's. You may get extra leniency later if you go above and beyond, but that's hardly guaranteed.
3. Fuck school clubs. If none of the clubs the school offers completely ignites in you a blazing inferno of passion, DO. NOT. JOIN. ANY. If you want to learn more about something, join a non-school-sponsored equivalent club, in fact you should look into that even if you DO think the school's is perfect. Spoiler warning: they put up a facade. Music can be difficult if you can't afford an instrument though. Sports are probably cheaper (don't quote me on that tho, never did either) but I can still say that if you want to do sports, it is vastly superior to do it outside of school, because when rivalries exist between teams, they aren't as toxic, and the games aren't generally used as excuses to get drunk.
4. If you have friends, TRY THE HELL NOT TO LOSE THEM (unless they are shitty ofc). Hang with people you like and BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF. Is there a group that you "should" like to be around, but can't stand? Probably better to ditch 'em.
5. Again, maybe just because I'm a genius or something, but scraping by is ludicrously easy. Although nearly every assignment has a point value of some kind, the reality is that most of the time tests are weighted very heavily. So do enough homework to get the material and pass the test, and the missed homework points will barely make a dent. Figure out how to get the highest-value assignments the easiest.
6. If you don't intend to go to college, don't waste time and effort on college classes unless they are subjects you actually want to learn at a high level. Learn how to game the credit system. Some places will allow a programming class in the place of a foreign language, for instance, which you may find more useful.
7. Read all the science stuff you can comprehend in elementary school, and I mean go to the public library and browse the science shelves for the kid-friendlier stuff, and you will basically know enough to get you passably through high school. Well, maybe not, but I've found that books that actually want to teach you will lay a concrete foundation that can solidify over a few years, whereas bored teachers and boring textbooks will throw a few rocks down and then yell, THAT'S THE FLOOR, MOVING ON! When there isn't a giant test looming over your head, learning stuff irrelevant to your life actually can be (for some people) fun! Ofc, most of you are not in elementary school, but if you have nothing better to do, learn about stuff in your own time that you will need for future classes. You'll enjoy it a lot more than the class and it will let you breeze through the class with ease.
8. Learn some fucking etymology, goddamn it! They barely teach root words any more and only the most basic prefixes and suffixes. A silly portion of the SAT is just knowing the meanings of words, and it helps a lot on tests in general.
Hello, traveler.
This is an ancient account I have not used in a long time. My views have changed much in the intervening months and years.
Nonetheless, I refuse to clean it up. Pretending that I've held my current views since the beginning of time is what we in the industry call a lie. Asking people to do so contributes to moralistic self-loathing. "See, those people have nothing damning! I do! I'm truly vile!"
Because you can never be a good person with a single blemish on the moral record, I thought that simply entertaining some thoughts made me irredeemable. Though I don't care for his writing style, William Faulkner presents a good counterexample. He went from being a typical Southern racist to supporting the civil rights movement. These days we'd yell at him for that, probably.
People are allowed to change their views.
Nevertheless, this period of my life has informed some of how I am today. In good ways and bad ways. To purge it would be to do a disservice to history. Perhaps it will not make anyone sympathetic, but it may help someone understand.
If, after reading all this, you still decide to use the post above as evidence that I am evil today, ask yourself if you have never disagreed with the moral code you now follow. In all likelihood you did, at some point. If some questions are verboten, and the answer is "how dare you ask that," don't expect your ideological opponents to ever change their minds.
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