Find a side-interest that you can do in class, after completing class work. It'll incentivize you to complete your class work sooner, and prepares you for being able to handle multiple things at the same time...especially if you have interest in that side thing.
Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
101–110 of 145 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
#102I left HS after 10th grade to go to Bard College at Simon's Rock:
Simon's Rock is unusualy in that the entire entering class has left high school early. You're treated like an adult there, allowed to make your own decisions and mistakes. If you're chomping at the bit to get on with your life, Simon's Rock is a great way to do it.
It's a mostly liberal arts school, but the technical classes were phenomenal. I was able to transfer to Carnegie Mellon for my junior year, no problem--all credits transferred, and I was just as well prepared as the other Physics juniors.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
#103If something feels like a massive waste of time, then it probably is. Find a way out.
California had a "general competency exam", that supposedly proved you were sufficiently educated. You could take the exam in your Junior year and exit school early. I really wish I had done this. Some of my friends passed the exam (supposedly it was easy; "Which of these shapes is a triangle?" etc.) and started college and/or working earlier. They ended up quite successful.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
#104I suggest reading the essay by Joseph Brodsky "Listening to Boredom":
http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/paleopsych/2005-May/00325...
Also this quote by Thomas Henry Huxley seems apt here:
"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly."
Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
#105Read Ayn Rand.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
#106Let'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 bei…
Definitely watch out for 'missed opportunities'!
My mother _forced_ me to try out for drama. She said 'all you have to do is audition.. then I'll never bring it up again'. I can't tell you how much the thought of even going to the audition repulsed me, much less performing on stage.
At the audition, while waiting, I was hanging around the most friendly people I had ever encountered (ok, it was a bunch of girls that were actually talking to me). Suddenly the fear of being onstage was less than the fear of being lonely.
I went from being scared of walking down the hallway to being able to talk in front of large crowds. My Friday nights of soldering and programming turned into a different kind of fun.. a chance to socialize with others.
(btw I can't sing for the life of me.. the trick is to stand in front or next to people with a similar voice. If you have a decent director they'll do this automatically)
Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
#107Everybody needs some some kindred souls. Finding them can be tough.
But (paraphrasing Gandhi), "Be the future you want to see."
Why not start a "computer club" "programming club"... whatever (if there's not one).
It'll look good on applications to college/job. And it'll draw to you the type of people who are sympatico...
How are you at explaining things to those slower than yourself? Maybe you (or your club) could offer some tutoring help to those less fortunate (in brains). You could set up a facebook or other social site for linking kids needing tutors with those wanting to tutor (whatever subject). Harnessing your gifts to serve in the school will not only give you personal satisfaction but will enhance your social contacts. [And remember: it will also bring you some (unexpected) challenges to help round out your growth.]
--my 2 cents.
Wishing you the best with it!
Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
#108Take every AP exam available, that will knock off all the easy classes in college that will equally waste your time and you can get out of some high school classes now and do it as independent study. I took 5 or 6 in my junior and aced them all - including two for subjects I had never even had class in. Just pick up some princeton review books and go at it. By the time I got to college I had 40 credits already done.
Don't undervalue this advice. I took a good amount, and knocked off a whole semester at college. If I took and tried in every AP class I took, I would've knocked off even more.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
#109School is how you pay for your free time.
When you're an adult you have to take financial risk to pay for time to work for free time to work on what you believe in. When you're a kid, your parents pay the bills and the health industry allows your parents' health insurance to cover to you- you have no financial risk. However, the devil's bargain is that you waste eight hours a day at school. It sucks, so get working on what matters.
You write well and you are clearly smart so you're also smart enough to get the grades you want. Get over yourself and stop looking at it as intellectual stimulation- instead, put in the amount of work necessary to get the grades you require. If you want to go to college, look up the average entrance scores and give yourself enough wiggle room to get in with ease. If you don't want to get in college, just put in the work to pass and push the rest of the time towards learning what it is you want to learn.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
#110Most of the comments seem to being suggestions on how to make conforming easier. That is a great way to go if the original poster wants to grow up to be a really kick ass employee / soldier / middle manager, etc.
Dropping out of high school was one of the best things I have ever done with my life. Not because I was too smart or too anti-social, etc. I just wanted to do other things. So I did.
If you focus on growing and learning then you can take whatever path you want. It is riskier and scarier, but I think it is worth it.
I am 31 years old and I have lived a great and varied life so far. I was a pastry chef at a fine dining restaurant, a social organizer working with non-profits, a high school teacher, a startup programmer, a BI consultant, and more. Now I own a couple of retail franchises work on my own startup and play with my kids.
If you have the drive and guts to take the road less traveled, I say go for it. Dropping out is not just for losers.