Help me to defeat the principal in a discution tomorrow!

[Lucas Gallindo]

I was called to the principal's room. She told I wasn't doing my homework. I came back to my classroom. I wrote a list of things that I don't like in school. I showed it to the principal. She said it was better to talk to my parents about that.

1.One thing I wrote in there is that I'd like to win grades because of my self-studies. I study lots of things by myself, but any body cares. I study Japanese. They want I study Biology. I rather human sciences than the other ones. HOW YOU THINK IT COULD WORK?

2.One thing she said is: You study things you don't care about because you must "have an ideia of what it is". WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT, GUYS? It's quite a good argument... But, sincerely, I don't believe this. If they want we learn just the "ideia of what it is", they shouldn't teach us the rest! The whole rest makes it hard to learn the "idea". What is easier to memorize? The summary of a giant book or the whole giant book? Once I saw an experiment that concluded that people that read just the summary of a book usually get better grades than others.

3.I have labyrinthitis. My psycologist realized that it activates when I'm stressed (I had 3 labyrinthitis attacks only today (It's a lot))Since my classes started, I have had labyrinthitis attacks very often. DO YOU THINK AN ADULT WOULD BELIEVE I'M REALLY STRESSED BASED ONLY ON THIS FACT? Note: My parents usuallt don't believe it.

4.My parents always says that "I just wanna learn what I want". WHAT COULD I SAY WHEN SOMEONE INCRIMINATES ME FOR THAT? Y'know, we learn what we like and we forget what we don't like. What is more important? Memorize things or learn things? The answer is obvious...

5.I didn't wrote this, but I don't like the English classes. I'm Brazilian and I speak English very well (You can see!), but the English teacher is teaching Simple Present and Future tenses. It's like "I _____ very happy today (to be)", "He _____ books everyday (to read)" , "Sara and I _____ to Europe (to travel)". I don't need to proove that I don't need to do those exercises, right? It's a total waste of time! In Brazil, Enghlish is obligatory. So, we stay 12 years having English classes and nobody, nooobooodyyy learns to speak english in those clases. Only who frequents an separed course speaks something. Their argument is the same as the second one: to "have an ideia of what it is". They muuust understand that "to haiowis" isn's the same as "to learn"!!! Even this, I, who speak English very well, must do a giant list of to-be-exercises that wastes my precious time. WHAT COULD I DO???

Please ansewer me, the discution is tomorrow.

[sswbm]

As for point 5, have some of the discussion in English!

[TheCancer]

You're not going to convince a principal to accept a modified curriculum based on your personal interests. Even if she agrees with you she's not going to make a special policy for you.

You're better off trying negotiate with individual teachers. Some teachers will allow you some free time. Some teachers will completely pretend they don't notice as long as you don't push it so far it endangers their jobs or becomes a class disruption.

I think arguing your points with the principal will only put a brighter spotlight on your actions making it even harder for you to get your way. I suggest being polite and saying you understand you have to follow your teachers' instructions, then do your classwork quietly for a couple weeks, then when they start ignoring you (or stop worrying about you) go back to doing what you want to the degree you can get away with it.

[Lucas Gallindo]

Good suggestion

[DreamRebel]

God, point 5 hits home. All those Spanish classes I had to take that didn't teach me how to actually communicate in Spanish were a huge, dissappointing waste of time.
Tell that principal that school fails people who really do want to learn. It does.