School & Grades

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Hello. I'm a senior in high school, and I have to say, I feel WAAY different about school now. I find myself not caring about grades, and regarding them as meaningless, to an extent. I feel as though grades are worthless numbers that say nothing about how smart you are, and don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Recently, I was checking my grades and found out that I got a C- on an assignment, and I didn't care. I though to myself "whatever" and just continued to live my life. I have A's in all of my classes, but I don't really give grades the importance that I gave them when I was younger. I used to feel REALLY bad when I failed a test, or got a bad grade on something, and I also felt as though those bad grades said something bad about me as a person, as well as how my bad grades meant that I was dumber than other people. Nowadays, I just don't give a sh*t about grades anymore. I still do my homework, finish classwork, pay attention in class, etc. but I don't regard grades with that much importance these days. If I get a bad grade on something, I just blow it off now.

Additionally, I've sort of lost faith in school. Boring classes, learning stuff that I don't care about, and might not be used later in life, and doing pointless homework assignments that don't mean that much to me, as well as incompetent/bitchy teachers and kids who talk all the time, misbehave, and act like fools. I can't stand those kids that talk all the time, they ALWAYS piss off the teacher and slow down class, and they keep other students from learning. Is it really THAT hard for kids to stop talking for more than a few seconds? Also, I don't like how my classes are boring, don't engage me, and how SOMETHING about my classes doesn't feel right. My classes always feel mundane and uninteresting. Not all of my classes are boring, however. I like some of my classes.

Next, there are some other bad parts of school. Inane rules(during the lunch period of my school, kids are NOT allowed to leave without asking. Kids must ask a teacher to leave the cafeteria now, they can't leave on their own....and yet, last year, I just left lunch whenever I wanted to, and nobody said a word about. WTF?), questionable lunches, and the very fact that kids have worn shirts with scantily-clad women, and they've never gotten in trouble for it.

I'm not an apathetic, lazy person, however. My grades have always been really good, and I've never gotten into serious trouble in school. In fact, I haven't had a single detention or suspension in high school so far. I',m faitly popular at school, and my teachers have always liked me; in fact, I can think of at least 5 teachers that can say awesome things about me. It's just that I don't really care about school anymore. Am I the only guy that feels like this?

NO. You are not alone.

I feel the exact same way about it. I'm only a junior, so I have a year and a half more of going to the jail (oops I mean school ) everyday.

I just feel really angry about high school classes overall. I mean (mine at least) give you no credit for college, "advanced" or "smart people" classes are even filled with people who don't care, and my stupid school puts me into electives I have no interest in, thus are bored. I "care" about my grades, only minimal enough though to make others happy. I've found that I used to put so much effort into school in the past, up until about the middle of last year, but now, as that was more than others, I don't have to anymore as mediocre is good enough !

Grades are NOT an accurate measure of how intelligent one is, IMHO. Most of even my schoolwork is just busywork anyway, and the majority of my classes, I can pass the tests without doing all of their meaningless busywork (cough cough history, cough cough English). Grades only matter for now, who is going to care what you did in math class in twenty years????? Tests and "summative" (projects, essays, presentations) assessments can be retaken or redone as many times as you need to get an "A", so they are teaching us who needs to learn in class, just see what's on the assignment when you fail and go back and do it again, knowing what it is and pass.

I've lost faith in school too, sigh. The people are another story there too. I COMPLETLY understand where you come from when you say that you wonder why kids cant shut up for a few seconds. At my school it's less than that!! ! Then there's the ones who have to keep aggravating the poor teacher for long periods of time over something dumb, and the ones that have to shout "miss!" or "dude!" (yes to the teacher) for attention when they are being deliberately ignored.

Then there's the teachers that act immature like this too; doing things like aggravating kids with their heads down who aren't paying attention (Seriously who cares if their head is down??? It's the kids grade, not the teacher's and they aren't disrupting the class at least), having everything come out of their mouth be sarcastic (seriously.....just why????), those who have to assign busywork every. single. day., and those will have to leave typos in things such as worksheets and lessons (spellcheck anyone?).

I've never been a troublemaker either (I despise kids that act like that and waste time and cause distractions), never been written up or on suspension, but sometimes I just have the urge to tell many kids and many teachers off sometimes to say what I really want to say or to tear things up. Like the OP, teachers generally like me (especially science ones), but I'm convinced that 99% of the others at that school hate me.

I hate school.

Discipline is non existent. Dress codes are not followed, who cares if you are tardy to class, etc. My school though, you can leave whenever you want (walk off, drive off, parent pick up etc.) but you just can't come back in, they'll lock you out , and leave for lunch though.

I got straight A's in elementary school. But by the time I got to junior high I was so burnt out and bored that I stopped caring about grades and stopped doing any work that seemed at all inconvenient. My grades were all over the place and I largely rode on my very high test scores. In the first year of high school there were actually some interesting courses available and my grades (and my feelings about school) improved quite a bit.

Then in 11th grade they canceled every one of the electives I was interested in, besides AP Physics (which was an elective because I already had more than enough science credits). Even my alternative selections, which I wasn't crazy about, were not available because of schedule conflicts. So they shoved me in a bunch of art classes that I was incapable of participating in. This crushed me. I entered a dissociative state and wandered from class to class like a zombie, doing nothing, saying nothing, and learning nothing.

Eventually I stopped going and got a GED. I finished the entire test in under half of the time allotted for the first of the two days that it was supposed to take and scored in the 98th percentile, a year and a half before my peers would graduate. I don't regret that decision, as it was a lot better than spending two more mind-numbingly boring years in school. But I am resentful that I could have thrived had the school system provided some stimulating material, rather than a thirteen year tedious-paperworkathon.

If I could reverse time then I would go back and enter dual enrollment. I was all prepared to do it after 8th grade, but I let a counselor talk me out of it. She convinced me that I wouldn't be able to handle university if I couldn't keep my grades up in junior high, so I should wait a few years and then try, if I can get my grades up. No, my grades sucked because of the brain melting tedium I was subjected to, something that could be avoided at university.

I have had similar feelings lately. I can't stand listening to people talk about how they spend a third of their lives preparing for the SAT, and how their parents enroll them in lots of classes for it. Most people in my school do this. Many classes required to graduate either have busywork or group project after group project-or both. I am less enthusiastic about putting forth effort if I know the material will have no relevance to my future. Teachers seem blind to cheating, such as putting legs up during test and looking at phone behind them. Of course there are interesting classes here and there, and that is what fuels the little enthusiasm I have for high school left. I am sadly only a junior.

I too agree with a lot of what's been said here. I've relaxed on grades somewhat this year; I got a couple B's and wasn't upset (weighted average for all classes is still over 100 though) like I would have been a year or two ago. I agree, too much emphasis is placed on grades, but they need some way to measure your knowledge. It finally occurred to me that my grades will be good enough to get into a decent college and get a decent job. There's no point trying to get amazing grades for me.
Also, in my region, standardized testing and the way funding is given to schools is pretty big detriment to education as well...
Maturity is rare in (high school!) students, even in higher level classes and too many teachers are too nice to handle it...

I think I'm like you guys, except my parents are really pushy about grades.

My parents pressured me to get good grades in middle/high school, but at least they rightly got more upset over a B in math or science than a B in English, per my relative ABILITIES in the classes.

I had about a 3.2 GPA in high school, and considerably lower during my first attempt at college. I dropped out before I could blow ALL my money, thankfully.

Now I have a BS in computer science, with a 3.7 GPA at the school it came from. However, I think my pendulum swung too far towards caring about grades - AT THE EXPENSE OF LEARNING. It's come back to bite me in the butt regarding the tech skills everyone (including myself) assumed I'd knock out of the park, and I'm still struggling to learn WITHOUT school.

I may take a few more classes from that school. This time, though, I'm FREE FROM THE TYRANNY OF GRADES. I've achieved the graduation with distinction that I was after. This time, it will be learning first, grades second, and I'll probably STILL maintain that 3.7. After all, I've become very good at "playing the grade game" and getting A's and A+'s (especially in math/CS courses) and can still play it regarding what I turn in - but with the primary motivation of LEARNING, I will LEARN a lot more!! This time, I'd rather get a B+ with A+ takeaway from the class than the other way around. This is, in fact, the only reason I'm not saying I'd get 4.0 post-graduation!