S/O: Did you care about academics in HS? Which BEST describes you?

[DawnM]

After reading the thread about HS being a horror house.....I realized that many of you posted about the academic aspect of high school.

 

I think maybe I am the only one here who didn't care AT ALL about academics.  Ok, I cared a little, because if I didn't keep up somewhat of a decent GPA, my parents would be on my case.  But I fully admit I did the min. to get by and that high school for me was social.  I cared very much about my social life, friends, boys, activities, etc.....

 

Did you have a great concern for your academics in high school?

 

Poll allows you to answer more than one if you feel you fit into more categories than one.

 

Other?  Explain please.

 

Dawn

[....]

Nope.  Didn't care at all.  I thought it was like serving a prison sentence and a complete waste of time.  I felt like I completely stopped learning anything after 7th/8th grade.  I didn't traditionally graduate from high school, either.  When I turned 16, I went before the school board and petitioned for a high school diploma - and they gave it to me!   :sneaky2:  (insert evil teenage laugh)   And so people don't think I was lazy, a brat or just didn't want to learn anything...there was an exam that I actually held the record highest score in the midwest states.  I also scored a 36 on the English section of the ACT.  There was also a teacher who taught me and another girl a class that she didn't get paid for teaching.  We were the only two kids in the school who were advanced enough to take this class, so the lady would clock out, teach the class and then clock back in.  Nice lady, but I feel bad that the school wouldn't even pay her...

 

BTW, I marked *Other*, because I didn't care about my grades, but I usually didn't make anything but an A.  During my last semester, I think I did start failing one of my classes.  

 

Sorry, I'm a really bad example for teenagers everywhere.   :D  

[TheAutumnOak]

I performed below my ability for sure...I had a lot of problems in my home growing up and school was not a priority for me...I did enough to stay in the magnet school I was in to avoid going to my district school, but that is it...Emotionally I couldn't deal with the problems at home and worry seriously about school work...It was just another burden...

[regentrude]

Definitely cared and did extra academics such as math courses in my spare time for fun.

 

Your answer choices do not fit my case because we had no choice of courses.

 

[sdobis]

I don't think the options cover all of the viewpoints. I had one of the highest GPAs in my school, but it was due to my test taking abilities. I was a party girl. I ditched many classes because the teachers could care less. I even showed up to class drunk. When my teacher noticed, he just told me to put my head on my desk and take a nap. I still graduated with honors and in the top 5% of my class of over 400 kids. I'm learning so much more as an adult than I ever learned in school.

[PIE!]

I marked the first option because I did care about getting the highest GPA possible and taking as many honors/AP classes as I could. But I can't say I cared about academics. I cared about grades and earning college credit. It was a big game to me. There were some classes where I learned very little because I didn't do any of the assigned work, but got A's through extra credit. I was very good at figuring out what teachers wanted. My goal was to be valedictorian, not to learn.

 

It wasn't until college when I had an amazing teacher who made it so that the only way to get that A was to thoroughly learn the material that I learned to care about learning.

[Matryoshka]

I did take all the hardest courses available, because otherwise I would have been bored out of my mind. Even then I knew I actually did worse in courses I was bored in, and I did like to learn and be challenged.  I ended up going to a parochial school rather than public, which did have more challenging courses.  But they still weren't all that challenging.  I could get A's and B's without working hard, and that was "good enough" for me. 

 

I guess I was the opposite of the poster above - I cared about learning, but not much about GPA.

[73349]

I needed to earn an academic scholarship, so I absolutely wanted to rack up those A's. They were my ticket out of town (and out of an unhappy family situation).

 

I took both of the APs my high school offered. :glare:  At least in honors classes there was stuff I couldn't do in my sleep (unlike most of K-8).

[Serenade]

I cared very much about academics, and I would have checked the first option had I even had the opportunity to take honors or AP classes. As it were, my school didn't offer any. I think it was in the early days of such classes, as I remember kids who lived in the big city of Raleigh talking about them, and I had to ask what they were. My high school didn't offer honors classes until my little sister, 5 years younger, attended high school.

[DawnM]

There would be no way to cover all the viewpoints of everyone on this board!

 

I don't think the options cover all of the viewpoints. I had one of the highest GPAs in my school, but it was due to my test taking abilities. I was a party girl. I ditched many classes because the teachers could care less. I even showed up to class drunk. When my teacher noticed, he just told me to put my head on my desk and take a nap. I still graduated with honors and in the top 5% of my class of over 400 kids. I'm learning so much more as an adult than I ever learned in school.

 

[DawnM]

My school didn't offer honors or AP classes back in the day either.  They do now.

 

 

I cared very much about academics, and I would have checked the first option had I even had the opportunity to take honors or AP classes. As it were, my school didn't offer any. I think it was in the early days of such classes, as I remember kids who lived in the big city of Raleigh talking about them, and I had to ask what they were. My high school didn't offer honors classes until my little sister, 5 years younger, attended high school.

 

[happypamama]

I cared very much about academics in high school. Social stuff, otoh, ugh. But academics -- I was expected to take all honors classes and get good grades, so I did. Not only because I was expected to do so, but because I also recognized that heavy academics were my ticket to options later. And okay, I liked doing well and being at the top and all of that. So I took honors classes and a bunch of college courses (not community college) in lieu of AP classes. I only looked at one college seriously because the boyfriend was there, but it turned out to have what I wanted too, and focusing on academics gave me the ability to get the necessary scholarships to go there, plus the chance to graduate a year early, saving a year of out of state tuition.

 

I am trying to impart this wisdom to my children, that academics now will give them more options later. It was ingrained in me in huge public school environment; everyone just assumed I'd select the top classes because it's just what you did if you could, and it was assumed that I'd go to college. (I got good grades in math and, since I was a female, I was encouraged to consider engineering; maybe I could have gotten even more scholarships, but I'd have hated it. I spent my time studying Italian, medieval history, and early childhood development/education and loving nearly every minute. I was a big fish in a fairly small pond in high school, and I found a niche where I could be that at college but with the huge pond's advantages, but in engineering, I'd have been a small fish in a very huge pond. Not for me.). But being homeschooled, the culture is different. I don't particularly long for my children to go to college or not go, as I feel that there are many valid paths to successful adulthood, and college may or may not be along those paths, but what I'm not okay with is limiting their choices because I couldn't be bothered to make them focus on academics.

[Pawz4me]

I voted that I performed below my ability, although I'm not sure that's totally accurate.  I never had a good math instructor in high school.  I had a solid grasp of basic math, but was totally lost from Algebra 1 on.  Deer in the headlights lost.  And that hurt me in science, too.  And made me feel stupid, especially since my brother, who was three years older than me, had been one of the stellar math/science kids in our school's history.  I felt like the math and science teachers were all looking at me and (mentally) shaking their heads. But none of them seemed to care enough to reach out and offer extra help.  I don't think they offered to help anyone.  I don't remember any of them ever mentioning being available for help before/after school, etc.  So I took the bare minimum of math and science courses.  I managed to pass them with fairly high grades somehow, but I learned absolutely nothing.  It was only years later that I had the perspective to understand how much they had failed me.  I learned more in those subjects once I started homeschooling my kids than I did in all my years of schooling.  I also learned that it probably wasn't totally my teachers' fault.  I think my brain was slow to mature in the area that would have allowed me to do better in higher math courses.  I excelled in humanities courses, though.  But our school offered no AP courses way back in the dark ages, so they weren't particularly challenging.

[Matryoshka]

My school didn't offer honors or AP classes back in the day either.  They do now.

 

My school didn't offer classes labeled 'honors' or 'AP', but they did have ones called 'Advanced' - semantics. :) 

 

I do think my Biology II course was AP level, even though it wasn't labeled as such.  It used a college text, and when I took the pre-med Intro Bio weeder course in college (for fun, I like Bio), it was pretty much all review - didn't have to work hard at all (which annoyed all the pre-med types who were sweating it).

 

[DawnM]

Partly semantics, but if it isn't officially an AP with an AP exam, you still have to take it again in college for the credit.

 

 

My school didn't offer classes labeled 'honors' or 'AP', but they did have ones called 'Advanced' - semantics. :)

 

I do think my Biology II course was AP level, even though it wasn't labeled as such.  It used a college text, and when I took the pre-med Intro Bio weeder course in college (for fun, I like Bio), it was pretty much all review - didn't have to work hard at all (which annoyed all the pre-med types who were sweating it).
 

 

[Soror]

Grades mattered to me because I'm a people pleaser and enjoyed learning. So, I did just well enough to stay at the top of my small class but that didn't often require that much work, there was nothing super challenging there. One of the many reasons I wanted to hs my kids was so they would have engaging and challenging work to meet them where they are at. I really loved the fact that there were so many more choices for classes in college and I finally got some classes that were challenging. 

[Matryoshka]

Partly semantics, but if it isn't officially an AP with an AP exam, you still have to take it again in college for the credit.

 

By semantics I meant 'honors' vs. 'advanced'. :) 

 

Since the Bio II class wasn't labeled as AP, it never occurred to me to take the exam (don't know that I'd even heard of them back then), and took the course again in college...  I was just a bit surprised to find so much of it a repeat!

 

[swellmomma]

nope.  In grade 10 I did, and I did well.  In grade 11 the sh*t hit the fan and while I started off the year caring, by 2nd term I really didn't.  Grade 12 was so so.  I didn't attend most of my classes preferring to nap in the student lounge or play cards in the cafeteria, and even spent a whole term in the drama class when I was supposed to be in chemistry instead.  BUT I did teach myself the material I was missing in those classes and got Bs in most things except chemistry (which I did pass, in grade 12 50% of your grade comes from the final exam, 50% from in class assignments and exams.  I passed the course with a 51% after my final, I had never done homework, attended class or written a unit exam past the first week).  I failed grade 12 math miserably and that was one class I actually attended every time and did the homework for, I just didn't understand it and the teacher was the type that if you asked for help she ridiculed you instead of explaining further (and she is still there teaching despite most students failing her class each year because she was tenured and they could not get rid of her).  I took it again in summer school (it was not required to graduate, only grade 11 math is) and passed.  So yeah I performed WAY below my abilities but I had a lot of drama going on in the background (abusive boyfriend in grade 11, suicide attempt, family drama for the next 2 decades etc).  I also felt (and still do) that most of the teachers were morons lacking any form of common sense, and knew my parents were morons already so to me I had no patience for any of them.  (I still have this "issue" with many people)

[wapiti]

I was a slacker in high school. I did the bare minimum to get by, e.g., I remember doing my physics homework under the desk during class. Still I had a decent mixture of As and Bs and I graduated 10th in my class. I took the only two APs the school offered (calc and English) and basically rested on my laurels of never having had to work in elementary, middle or high school in order to perform well.

I was a slacker in college too (a selective one, oddly enough, where I had a big scholarship thanks in part to test scores) only it was a little more difficult to slide by - my grades weren't quite as good as in high school. It really wasn't until law school that I began to turn on my brain. I'm not sure how I got into a top tier school LOL but I finally got closer to "finding my people," as the saying goes. I missed out not only on so much learning earlier in school but also on the fun of using the brain, both sides, in deeper ways.

My life experience is a big driving force behind the education goals I have for my kids, to be challenged even when they are reluctant to challenge themselves.

[AimeeM]

Not even a little bit (did I care about academics). I'm not sure when it happened, or why, as I was top of my classes throughout elementary and the beginning of middle school, gifted classes, local university program for gifted children, etc.

In high school I discovered it wasn't "cool" to be smart, found a new group of friends (not a positive group), there were things going on at home, etc. I just decided it was much more fun to not "care". Unlike your parents, OP, mine didn't seem to give a hoot about my GPA or report cards. I failed 9th grade twice.

Funny thing... I loved textbooks and literature. I remember reading through all of my textbooks within the first week or two of bringing them home. I made a serious effort to not do anything in school. I sincerely didn't care about the academics, but I did ENJOY them (on my own terms), if that makes any sense. 

 

[maize]

I had to vote other. I took all the challenging courses I could and was driven to learn, but I was not motivated by high grades/GPA.

[Jackie]

I'm another slacker who did little work in high school but made good grades and passed APs because it was expected. It caught up to me a bit in college, where I was still a slacker but made only ok grades. I did have a wonderful time in college and "found my people", as wapiti put it. I was well into adulthood before I cared about academics and started self-teaching some stuff.

[ErinE]

I was very focused on academics because I knew I wasn't going to be able to afford college without scholarships. I took as many AP classes as possible. I was also heavily active in dance.

 

I loved all my classes: calculus, physics, history, computer science, English. My only regrets are that I didn't take a higher level science and I didn't study Spanish.

 

I disliked the drama and gossip of high school but it wasn't as bad as middle school. My peer group was made up of people with similar interests and motivations. We still managed to have fun.

 

if I could take classes for the rest of my life, I would.

[ScoutTN]

I went to an elite boarding school in the NE. The goal set before us was clearly admission to a competitive, selective college or university. Ivies and others of similar quality.

 

Academics were serious and APs were expected. I graduated with 25 hours of AP credit and SATs (in the old days, before current revisions) of 1500. I ranked slightly better than the middle of my class of 80. I did NOT enjoy school for a host of reasons and was thoroughly happy to be out of it. Whether I liked school and how seriously I took my academics were totally unrelated issues. I would have truly learned more had I been happy, but the experience was valuable and life changing in many ways.

 

There were kids in my school who were there because of money and couldn't manage this level of academics but they got by.

 

I coasted in college for a good long while because of my high school experience. I was well prepared academically and socially, but burned out. I found other things to do. ;)

[Carrie12345]

I voted other, b/c I'm not sure how to categorize my experience.

 

I was a major slacker in high school. In the second half, I even got myself some Ds and an F.  I cut as many classes as I could without losing course credit. RARELY did homework. I don't know how (definitely not with any AP courses) I managed to pull a decent enough GPA.  I was accepted into every school I applied to (mostly small, private schools) and received a dean's scholarship to the one I chose.  I did have fairly good SAT scores.

 

That was in 1995.  Today, I suspect I'd be overlooked by most private schools.

[Crimson Wife]

I marked the first option because I did care about getting the highest GPA possible and taking as many honors/AP classes as I could. But I can't say I cared about academics. I cared about grades and earning college credit. It was a big game to me. There were some classes where I learned very little because I didn't do any of the assigned work, but got A's through extra credit. I was very good at figuring out what teachers wanted. My goal was to be valedictorian, not to learn.

 

Ditto. I didn't care whether I actually learned anything in my classes, it was all about the external markers of achievement (grades, honors & awards, standardized test scores). I was totally bored academically and played the game to do as little work as I needed to in order to still get an A.

 

I had my heart set on attending Stanford and also my dad had promised to buy me a new car as a graduation present if I got 100% A's or above in every single academic subject every term all 4 years of high school. I'm pretty sure that my dad made that offer in half-jest thinking that I'd never be able to actually accomplish it. I think he was pretty nervous by the time I was a junior and got my first B (trig, ugh!) I ended up with A's in everything aside from math and was salutatorian.

 

The ironic thing was that I was intellectually curious and was constantly reading, watching documentaries (PBS until my town finally got wired for cable), talking to adults about stuff, etc. I had begged my parents to send me to a prep school like Andover (they said I had to choose between them helping to pay for private high school or college so I chose the latter) and would've gotten so much more out of high school in an environment like that.

[Mommy22alyns]

I had naturally high expectations for myself, but I didn't really pack in the AP classes like a lot of kids did.  I probably could have handled it well, but I just didn't want to do it.

[JuanitaL]

Underachiever. My junior year I left my regular high school and went to the local vocational school and joined the easiest program. I scored a 17 on the ACT my senior year, but I was ok with that because my best friend (my partner in slacking) scored a 15.

[sassenach]

I was one if those kids who sailed through k-8, so I really never learned what it meant to work at learning. In high school, my sailing had mixed results. I cared about grades, but not enough to prioritize my studies above anything else in my life. Lazy smart person syndrome.

 

I ended up having a baby junior year, but I had enough credits to graduate a year early, so I did. Had I cared, or really been told, I could have gone a lot further academically. However, I don't regret the way my life has played out, so there's that.

[freeindeed]

I goofed off too much in 9th and 10th grades, but still did well. I buckled down in 11th and 12th grades and did exceptionally well. I wish I'd tried my best all four years.

[Sdel]

I voted didn't care and other.  I didn't care about my academics, but it wasn't the lack of interest in college/education that caused the lack of caring.

 

I didn't care at all.  I could do well almost effortlessly, but I didn't care to do anything.   My grades were 100% carried by my test scores but were generally abysmal because I wasn't doing homework or daily work.  My senior year I took AP biology and got a 4 on the test, but my teacher had me doing worksheets on the last two days of class as an excuse to not fail me for the semester.

 

It wasn't my HS or teachers' fault.  I was seriously depressed and having a tough time.  My parents divorced in 8th grade, lost a grandpa I was really close to less than 6 months later.  Spent two years getting into the groove of divorced life and my dad remarried, then found out he had cancer halfway through 10th grade.  Spent all of 11th and 12th dealing with his declining health and just a few months after I graduated HS he died.  That killed any initiative to head off into college so I worked and spent another 2 or 3 years generally figuring out where my life was going.  

 

I did finally go to college though.

 

Stefanie 

[SKL]

I was a pretty good student but I could have been better.

 

I never was after any recognition beyond honor roll.  I only applied to the nearest (non selective) state university, knowing I had no college fund and would need to commute to school.  However, I was kind of intellectual, so I tended to operate at a higher level because it would have been boring to do otherwise.  I had the hardest time with classes that were not challenging.

[musicianmom]

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Edited May 23, 2022 by musicianmom

[wintermom]

We didn't have honours classes "back in the day." I don't even know if there was a higher level math. Things are much different where I live now. I like the practical math, which will be helpful for those student who know they don't want to go further with academic math.  

 

I wanted to get a provincial scholarship for my 3 years of high school (grades 10 - 12 in our province). So I had to maintain a minimum of 80% in specific subjects. Above and beyond that was gravy for me. I wasn't trying to get into a super difficult program at university, so I did a lot of stuff on the side of academics- sports, part-time job, music practice, spending time with friends and lazing about.  It was stressful enough at the time, mostly in English as most of the teachers were a bit wacko. The other subjects were fine. I could have applied myself a lot more or done a lot more clubs in the school to benefit from the opportunities available. I did this later in my Master's program - certainly NOT in undergrad, when I was as lazy as possible to squeak by with as little work as possible for a lot of subjects.

[Arcadia]

I was a slacker, had very good grades without effort and enjoyed my 1st-12th grade school years on extracurriculars and academic competitions.

I'm not from this country so its hard to compare hardest course. I did not take the extra papers that people who aim for govt. scholarship took. I did took the hardest compulsory courses offered for engineering track kids in my country.

 

I got into the university and faculty (engineering) I wanted without studying and slack at university too. I love the engineering labwork and internship though.

[LMD]

I was way more interested in my boyfriend, parties, working at my job... I coasted.  I did well (just barely outside the top 15% of my state) but I could have done much better.  There was exactly 1 class that was difficult for me and I loved it - would have been better if we had a decent teacher and I had some encouragement to pursue it.

[happypamama]

It is kind of frightening to me to see how many people were high achieving slackers like myself who did well because we were good at playing the game. I know that mine and DH's experiences at the same school, where both of us did well despite fairly minimal effort, play a huge role in why we chose to homeschool, because we want better academics for our children. I am guessing there are a lot of people like us here.

[MistyMountain]

I didn't care about academics at all. I was bored to death. I now know I had add and was pretty bright. I was unnoticed because I was really shy and a lazy student. I think I probably should have been identified as gifted but I never was because I was quiet and daydreamed during class. I put in enough effort at school to not get Ds and Fs which really was nothing. I didn't really care about grades. I could have done much better if I actually did my homework. I did good on tests. I finally decided to go to college and went to the counselor sometime in my Senior year and he is like umm you were suppose to have taken your Sats and start applying to schools already. I took the last available SAT and the counselor was like umm you actually did pretty well why hadn't you thought of college earlier. I did the work study thing in my senior year so I could be at school less.

[TechWife]

I cared because I knew college was my "ticket out" of my home environment. 

[Melissa B]

I only went to school on Mondays and Fridays. I skipped Tuesday through Thursday.  Luckily, my teachers allowed me to take my tests when I was there, so I still graduated with honors (top 10% of the class.) :rolleyes: I took mostly honors classes and a few AP's so I must have been thinking about college, or maybe I was just tracked that way. I know there was still tracking when I was in school. I also somehow managed to do everything required to graduate as a NHS member. I did enjoy doing afterschool tutoring at a local elementary and participating in our NHS sponsored blood drives. I worked quite a bit while in high school, as I found that much more enjoyable than going to school.

 

My dh dropped out of school and took the GED as soon as he was able. He got some sort of honors designation on his GED - I think he aced some of the sections, maybe even all of them. He went right into community college.

[GrammarGirl]

I cared too much and would cry if I didn't do well on a test. Getting a 4.0 meant a lot to me. I have no idea where the pressure came from because my parents didn't push me. I did get the 4.0 and was valedictorian, but I loosened up in college. I think getting a few Bs was healthier for me.

[The Girls' Mom]

I cared a lot. Until I got married. Then I just wanted to BE DONE.

[Alice]

I cared a lot. I knew I wanted to be a doctor and knew I needed a scholarship to college (parents couldn't afford it otherwise). I did also like learning for the sake of learning, I've always enjoyed school but I also had a goal in mind and knew the grades would get me there. My self-image was also very much as "the smart girl". I was valedictorian and I probably had too much pride in that exterior role. 

 

I worked hard but it wasn't really difficult for me, if that makes sense. Meaning, I studied and did the work but never really had any classes that truly challenged me in high school. There was part of me that always felt that I wasn't really all that smart and was really afraid that everyone would find out. 

[HRAAB]

It wasn't that I didn't care about learning; it was just that - usually - I couldn't care less about what I was forced to learn in school.  I always had my nose in a book, but it rarely had anything to do with what I was studying in school.  I didn't do badly, but I could have done better.  When I was interested, I did very well.  I was fortunate to attend a good, private high school and am sorry I didn't appreciate it more at the time.  

[Ausmumof3]

I voted other. I didn't care about grades in terms of careers etc. but I was competitive and also really enjoyed learning.

[AK_Mom4]

Pretty much.

 

Having a decent GPA was my ticket to escape from a crappy home life and go to college. Getting into college far far away from home was the best thing that had happened to me in my entire life. Going to high school was better than being at home, so I signed up for lots of sports and activities -anything that kept me out of the house.

[TrixieB]

I didn't particularly care about academics.  I just did the next thing, whatever I was told to do.  The counselor said to sign up for honors classes, so I did.  Then I did my homework, because I was expected to, etc.  School was not hard at all, and it was mostly very boring. Foreign language and math were sometimes interesting, and there was one good art class.  I think I did get one B because the class was so tedious and the teacher was such a HUGE jerk that I completely didn't care.

 

Really, what I wish is that there had been dual enrollment back in the day, and that I could have gone to community college for my senior year. College was SO much better than high school. I did care about learning in college, and I tried hard to do well.
 

[Murphy101]

I despised every moment in school.

 

I loved learning though and was a very responsible and dedicated person in general.

 

I barely graduated high school because I hated being there. I hated the waste of my time, the social politics, the busy work, and the lack of choices in studies and intellectual conversation and creative outlets.

 

However, I loved learning and did so on my own. I usually finished reading my textbooks by the end of the second week each year and then goofed the rest of the year reading other stuff. I did okay on my ACT (the math portion brought my composite down significantly).

 

It wasn't that I wasn't interested in academics.

 

It was that the environment and teaching was not conductive to genuine academics.

[J-rap]

I barely cared.  I wish I did.  I think I was smart enough, but I didn't care enough to work beyond just what was necessary.  I don't know why I was like that.  I've raised my children differently.  When I was in high school (in the 70's), there were no AP classes, and no one ever even thought about preparing for the SAT (besides having a sharpened pencil).  Things have changed a lot since then, but also, I think my upbringing just didn't instill in me the motivation to go above and beyond.

[Farrar]

I had to choose other because of the way you tied academics to GPA. I cared greatly about learning in high school. And I cared greatly about some classes and about challenging myself. I was a real intellectual geek in high school - my friends and I were known - I kid you not - as the "Salon Crowd" because we held salons where we would read and discuss articles and poetry and do read throughs of Ibsen and weird stuff like that. Oh my gosh, we such pretentious jerks. But I didn't care at all about other aspects of academics and I did things to purposefully blow my GPA at times, in part because I was an idiot, but also in part because I didn't really believe in the competitive nature of my school and in rankings and GPAs and stuff like that.

 

I remember a teacher who was like, clearly your grade in this class is the most important thing to you. Well, that was the end of that class. You can't just say something like that to me and get away with it. Clearly I won't be putting forth any effort in there anymore. Sigh. Did I mention I was a pretentious jerk?