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Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

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Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

#71
Even at good jobs, entry level workers end of doing many things that are wastes of time, both apparent and real. Learning the focus to power through those is half the battle.

Further, a 3.5 is not "decent enough grades" anymore -- they're average. Grade inflation has led us to lose perspective.

Finally, the best thing I did for myself in my last two years of high school was learning to interact with people in my age group but not my peer group. Breaking out of an introvert's shell is very, very hard. It's not impossible.

Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

#72
post #16

Let's face it, the academic part of high school is not challenging enough for you, but what about the other parts? Are you on one of your school's sport team? Are you part of any clubs? Did you try to take on some kind of leadership position at your school? How big is your friend circle?

I recommend this highly. I felt more or less as you (the original submitter) do until the math club found me [1] at the end of freshman year. My freshman year is like a giant beige blur in my memory. It's like I was in a vaguely depressed stasis the whole time. But then it was math, trivia, and Drama Club stage crew for the rest of my high school career. Suddenly high school felt great.

There's nothing wrong with being an introvert... but there are degrees of introversion. And self-study is the secret to learning, which you seem to understand, but you might be surprised to find that you self-study better when you've got a team, a goal, a project, or a group. If the groups at your school seem to suck, there are other ones around. You've even got the Internet, which I didn't have at your age.

Here's one regret from my high school days: At one point someone came up to me and said "You're a big guy and you're not already on the football team or any other team. Want to learn to play the tuba and march in the band? We need more tuba!" At that point I was a very shy freshman, easily embarrassed, with no musical experience, and that whole idea sounded preposterous, like some kind of practical joke. So I said no. I wish I hadn't done that. It turns out that they were probably serious. And playing the tuba is probably pretty easy! I might have faked it pretty well with just four notes and a basic sense of rhythm! And it might have been fun to march around with the band... a nice, structured group activity with a lot of depth. (There is always a more complicated piece of marching-band music out there...) And I'd be have been that much farther ahead on learning something about music.

Hang in there. Don't drop out of high school if you can possibly help it -- it's good to have the degree, and believe me it will end. And college is a big improvement!

---

[1] They pulled me and a few others out of freshman algebra class and just gave us the AHSME, one day. I had no idea what the AHSME was, but I took it, and I ended up in a three-way tie for first place in my high school with my best friend (another freshman) and a senior member of the math club. I learned about the math club the next day when its faculty adviser came stalking into the cafeteria during lunch, waving the AHSME results in one hand, with the wild-eyed look of a prophet on a mission. He approached me and my friend and more-or-less told us that we had to join the math club, it was vitally important, because we had the knack.

That guy was great. Teaching is a weird business. 99% of the time you are saying the same things that you always say, but the remaining 1% are tiny moments which change people's lives forever.

Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

#73
The short - if you are absolutely set on being an entrepreneur, are properly depressed, or don't care about high incomes, then drop out. If you hate school that is.

Not completing high school does narrow your options in life. Most people say that isn't a good thing. It may be right for you though.

I finished high school, then dropped out of college - only to return 4 years later. It was a bit harder to adjust without the momentum of study. But I did it and loved it enough to do a postgraduate course.

Maybe find a mentor in programming to help you set challenges - engaging your programming related to school work.

IMHO a large number of students in compulsory education (to age 16 here) don't love school.

Note - I am biased as I am now a high school Maths teacher in the UK. Sadly, only one teacher inspired me at school, so I am trying to do better.

Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

#74

You might have an easier time getting something valuable out of your 'fluffier' classes, such as English, than out of the math or science classes. I'm guessing you don't learn much in math or science, because you learn that stuff at a faster pace than your peers. But in English, even if the classroom discussions are banal, you're probably reading some interesting literature. You must be doing Shakespeare sometimes. E…

Thanks. This is a really good idea. During that good year I had, one of my most passionate teachers was my English teacher, which was partly the reason I liked that year so much (that subject had been ruined for me before). My English class now basically consists of worksheets and vocab. books, but I suppose they still can't take away the value of the literature :)

Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

#75

Try contacting Jessica Mah ( http://jessicamah.com ). She has a similar story as yours and probably could give you better advice/guidance.

markbao and DaniFong are two HN readers with stories you may be able to relate to.

Look up Hans Reiser [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser] and Niniane Wang [http://niniane.org/] - they are early dropouts in the tech industry. It's not totally insane to fast-track your career.

Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

#76
You might enjoy reading this site:

http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/

It has philosophy of education/parenting ideas. For example, you seem to think that you are selfish for wanting a life that isn't boring. I think that is a very reasonable desire. This is a site that will actually take your side on issues like this.

Also, people are probably telling you that college is different/better. Just survive through high school, and then everything will be awesome. It's not. College is maybe 20% better, not 500% better. Don't think of college as the answer to all your prayers. It's very possible you will hate it.

Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

#78
post #75

Try contacting Jessica Mah ( http://jessicamah.com ). She has a similar story as yours and probably could give you better advice/guidance.

markbao and DaniFong are two HN readers with stories you may be able to relate to. Look up Hans Reiser [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser ] and Niniane Wang [ http://niniane.org/ ] - they are early dropouts in the tech industry. It's not totally insane to fast-track your career.

Hans Reiser ended up a murderer too. Be careful not to follow his path too closely :)

Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

#79
Just to put my advice in perspective: I'm an Indian who will possibly be attending (a pretty good) public university this year. I'm the typical HN/reddit geek: started programming when I was 9, know around 9 programming languages, quite some bit of theory, etc. etc. In school in India, I was bored all the time, got mediocre grades, and had donkeys for teachers. Here's what I feel you should do:

1. Challenge yourself

So, you've got to choose from these kinds of activities:

  A: Activities that you enjoy doing
  B: Activities that *might* impress (say) the college admissions staff
I mostly did stuff exclusive to type A; bad idea. Of course, never do anything that comes only within B. Find what comes under the union of the two.

You're in America: you don't hunt for opportunities, you are flooded with them. Someone on this thread recommended "taking every AP exam available". Sure, do that: it's really important. But that's not ambitious at all: AP exams cover only about 10% of what Indian entrance examinations do, and you get to use "calculators" and "appendices" (more like textbooks). Do something real, like aspire to be an IMO/IOI/IPhO/IChO/ISEF medalist (if you don't know what those are, shame on you).

2. Manage your time

I was absolutely dismal at this. But I've started doing it for a month and it really does wonders: I have stopped procrastinating and started to feel less stressed out. I'd recommend you watch the late Randy Pausch's other lecture (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0) or read Getting Things Done. Most of HN can give better advice.

3. Skip school (a lot)

It took me a lot of effort to get my parents to allow me to do this. Alas, it was too late then. Usually, teachers do more harm than good. Read the right books instead of attending their classes.

Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in a number of research labs, I would add to this that you should also try contacting professors at the nearest college. Very rarely is there something structured put in place for high school students to work at universities, but that said, many professors will work around/through/over the bureaucracy so that you can work with them. Often times all that is needed is a bit of initiative and some personal…

Very rarely is there something structured put in place for high school students to work at universities... Really? I went to three different summer programs at Ohio State University when I was in high school. Great fun. My last summer program ran nine or ten weeks and had me playing RA in a biochemistry lab. One of the most generous masters' students in the whole world (I think the poor guy was in his 3rd or 4th year…

Large universities (and often small private universities with an interest in being linked with the surrounding community) are more likely to have structured programs available. Smaller state schools less so. Even universities which do have such programs will often not spread them evenly to all disciplines. I'm also coming from a biochemistry background, and because biochemistry tends to be labor intensive I know programs are much more likely to exist in this area than, say, computer science or math.

Obviously, if an organized program exists, take it! My point was that the absence of such a program does not preclude you from taking an individual initiative to do something creative.

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