School is hindering my education!

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I love to learn, and if you gave me a stack of books to read I would have them memorized, but making it formal and attaching a grade to it destroys my motivation because I know I'm just doing it for the grade, not because I care. A lot of the courses are not relevant to me either. I am too smart to do well in some classes. Last semester I was so bored in class it was torture sitting in class. I thought maybe I had ADD so I got a prescription to Adderall. It helped a little bit, but only because it made me feel stupid and slow, which I hated. So I now realize the problem is that I am bored because nothing is engaging me enough.

In English class we had a bunch of works which I wrote several papers about but I never read. Over break I actually wanted to read some of them, because now I could just read them without worrying about assignments or rationing my time.

I can't wait until I get this stupid college degree out of the way so I can start really educating myself.

JOIN THE CLUB! Although with ME, I got bored like by the 4th grade. As for educating myself, I eventually just learned my new interest, computers, really well. Even today, that is what I do. If I need to learn a new thing, etc... , which is common, NO PROBLEM!

I never really bothered to really try, until relatively recently, to learn those things I wanted to, and should have, in school, but they never bothered to teach. To this day, I don't use the word teacher generally. I speak of all the "teachers" in school. They are really just poor babysitters going through the motions.

I don't know where I would be today if I didn't learn all this stuff on my own.

Steve

School has nothing to do with education. It's about socialization, obeying institutional rules, becoming a team player, and creating a hierarchy for everything.

My own education began the day after I graduated.

Oh! and school is also about getting labelled by students, teachers, guidance counselors, etc.

isn't this something Mark Twain said?

Claradoon is right about school sort of. It is about education, but not the kind of education you're thinking about. School is about learning how society works and what you need to do.

It's also about getting a degree. And this is important.

"I have never let schooling interfere with my education."
Mark Twain

I would be happier with school if they would own up to the truth. The confusion started in Grade 1, where I had a teacher explode at me because I drew a crooked "1". She said I had no future, and would flunk high school. (If you are thinking of excuses for her, stop it!)

And then there was Miss Murphy, bless her memory. She was our principal and she improved many lives.

But I gotta side with Mark Twain.

Mark Twain was definately cynical, to say the least.

If I had a choice and didn't have to comply with education stuff, I would be persuing a degree in microbiology, going towards epidemiology. However, in order to get into microbiology, you have to take two years of general biology classes, which I cannot stand. Most of the work in biology is reading, which gets boring after about fifteen minutes.

School means you go to a place and they teach you your three Rs: Reading, wRiting and aRithmatic. Education means taking those and learning how to apply them.

This is disillusionment is common with all people, NT and Aspie alike. Schooling sucks hard. Sometimes it can introduce you to something you never thought you would be interested in, but mostly it is there to train us to be "good model citizens" and you end up forgetting most of the s**t you learned in school once you're out anyway. The only things I found interesting in school were my advanced placement/gifted and talented/honors classes, because they were specifically there for people who wanted to REALLY learn about a subject. I did terrible in normal classes, and excelled in advanced specific subject based classes.

Have any of you read the Teenage Liberation Handbook? Google it, and google "unschooling" which I feel is something a lot of us do. It's all about getting rid of the ideas school taught you and learning on your own without having the assignments, grades, and social pressures that school brings.

Everything I've learned and used I've learned on my own. I hate education! Its restrictive, forced, its just brutal. It IS a place to establish social hierachy

Motivation was my biggest problem with school. At the beginning of the semester/quarter, I would think "Ok, fresh start, I am going to rock this time out!" But by the 3rd or 4th week I had no motivation to do the work. My only motivation would be fear at that point: fear of failure, fear of people getting angry at me, fear of getting in trouble, and it never actually made me do better than C+ or B work.

I did all my homework but never cared, from grades 1-8. My only fear was failing and being a loser. I was normally getting 80's or higher.

Then, highschool, after Grade 9, I stopped caring. My math scores were 60-70's... Well, one time there was a girl in the class, grade 12. She was smart and I thought she went after smart people. 93% in math that year, 96% on the final exam (I was pushing 50's the year after (I 'dropped' out but was already graduated)).

Basically, *I* put myself through school. Grammar was a strong point (don't mark me here, I'm not trying) and I could always do enough to 'get by' but school shouldnt be about 'getting by,' it should be fun and about learning. I think schools need MORE choice and MORE focus on childrens strong points. If a student likes math he should be exposed to more math courses and less crap!

I learned about the Canadian fur trade. The ****ing fur trade!! Not once but about 3-5 different times (read as 'different grades'). I spent 3 weeks of my ENTIRE school career on WW2 history. I didnt even know geography outside of Canadian provinces because we didnt learn anything.

School is so specific on English (where it forces shakespeare and other crap down your throats versus learning actual grammar/language skills) and math. Very limited. These should be taught but to a degree. Learn math but brothers and sisters, my math skills are crap and even better, I dont use them.

I decided to give up on a degree when I thought "I don't have time to learn anything because I was too busy with school"

I have learned more after graduating than i ever did when i was in school.

Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read.

Frank Zappa

I loved my math class last year, but I hated the add on, we had to do "three hours a week" of alecs, a computer learning thing

my problem was that it was three hours a week, not "x# of units a day" not "get these bits done and come back with it" but three hours a week, that was dreadfully frustrating

I got an A in the paperwork part of the class, f in the alecs part of the class, it was immensly frustrating, I KNOW the stuff, why do I have to prove it over and over and over and over again?

busy work trash

It's really hard for me in school. I'm flunking Civics and English because i'm bored with and can't understand government and Shakespeare. I'd rather be drawing an elaborate sci-fi comic or obsessing over video games, rock music and my favorite cartoons. I'm also struggling in Algebra but I have a really helpful aide. Civics is my first period class and i'm incredibly tired and lethargic in it as well. I'm doing well in my art class and fair in my health/family life class (I'm the only senior in the Freshmen health class). I think i'll do fine in Econ and Geography next semester. I doubt i'll graduate with the grades I have now and i'll have to re-take some classes. Also, keep in mind that this is SPECIAL ED civics i'm flunking. Mainly because my teacher doesn't help me out when I ask for it and I find that quite irritating cause i'm about to fall asleep and all. I'm either really giggly or really depressed in my Algebra class and have trouble concentrating. I have absolutely no clue when my work is due or even what homework I have because i'm always spacing off. It's really hard for me to keep up.