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[LoneTophat]

I'm a Junior in High School right now. It is very hard not to drop out to be quite honest. The teaditional means of education don't work for the majority of students and the 'Old Guard' won't listen to the student body calling for more modern educational techniques such as student centered learning.

People learn in different ways. The route way, really, really, sucks for me.
REALLY.

I'm supposedly brilliant, my IQ's 140+ (I know it's only one measure, I don't find myself that intelligent), and yet I barely get by with D's and C's.
Why? Effort. I explained it time and time again. I'm putting in 30% max, because I can't stand the teachers, the students, or the administration.

Don't even get me started on finding someone to have an intelligent conversation with during lunch. Even the AP kids don't have intelligent discussions about topics that interest me. The only reason why I'm still in school is because of the technical center across the yard from my High School.

I'm taking a Computer Tech course, the basics I know, but it keeps me going to school. Atleast it's something right?
I just... What do I do? I'm so disheartened by the responses I got when I wrote/spoke about modern educational techniques for my school.
Sigh. We've been teaching the same damn way for the past century. It's obviously not working, because America is becoming stupider. :|

But anyone who doesn't fit into a square hole is swiftly cast out of society, social circles, and the 'establishment'.
What the fuck will I do with my life? Can I change the world for the better, which is my dream?

Right now I'll probably end up being a writer on the side. Do some tech work with technology to get by.
Sigh. What a pitiful existence I have waiting for me.

[lordcooper]

Grit your teeth and get on with it.

[Lectorog]

1) Try harder in school, if you can. Getting low grades when you can easily do better won't benefit you at all.

2) Get through your homework in a timely manner, then educate yourself. There are a lot of things you can learn online, often at a college level - that would probably do you well.

3) Keep to yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. If you don't want to spend time with people, you can use the time to better yourself (in non-social ways).

There's really nothing wrong with your future plans. That seems like a decent career; more interesting than many, all considered. If you think you'll enjoy that, go for it.

If it keeps you going better, compare yourself to Einstein.

You can definitely change the world, if you so wish. To do so, you'll likely need to succeed on some level. Not caring about school won't make a change. TBH, there's not much you're going to be able to change about the school system. But you can try your hardest to learn. Self-improvement is the entire purpose for schooling; you should try to get the most out of these years.

I'm an intelligent Junior in high school as well. I care about near-none of my classes. I'm barely learning anything in AP Calculus right now, a Senior class; AP Physics, similarly, is easy for me (supposed to be really hard), and I'm learning the most from it. What I do is earn all A's (because I can), take any advanced courses that will help me, and devote my class time to getting the absolute most out of what we're doing. Just stick with it, my good man, and you'll emerge better than if you had dropped.

Grit your teeth and get on with it.

This too. Deal with it; many, many others have to as well.

[Zrk2]

Grit your teeth and get on with it.

Life's a bitch, then you die.

Deal with it. Unsurprisingly the world is filled with assholes and you can't beat them all, so suck it up and play their stupid-ass games. Works for me, I can Honour Roll without trying too hard.

[darkflagrance]

Hey, noticed you posted in the Occupy Wall Street thread.

Maybe instead of trying to succeed in conventional avenues, you should try to mobilize one local youth movement or another and try to change the world. Best outcome is that you succeed and wield your influence for the greater good while tasting the fruits of power. Worst outcome is that you fail, go back to school in the post-struggle America, and then like John Kerry you use your history as a grassroots organizer to run for President.

[Il Palazzo]

There is a growing discontent about the state of public education, and not only in America. The rote learning, standarised tests and subsequently lowering standards to fit the lowest common denominator, the strangling of creativity and passion for learing are hated not only by pupils but also by their parents and teachers themselves. Everybody seems to conform to the system that they dislike, yet whose inertia keeps it going despite signs of failing.
Go ahead and listen to or read what people like Sir Ken Robinson - who made his life mission to challenge the old system - have to say. Get informed and get involved. Finally become a teacher yourself and work from within the system to change it. It can be done, as long as there will be enough like-minded people pushing for the change.

Or, if you don't feel like commiting a large part of your life like that, then stop worrying and stop complaining.

[Bauglir]

Random thought, though, I believe you'd do better with traditional techniques instead of... whatever the hell we have now. Here's the knowledge, learn it, here's a test, pass it. 90% of anything that can be described with buzz words is poison, and that goes for educational techniques too. I don't mean to insist that the Old Ways are the One True Way, so please don't take it to mean that. What I mean to communicate is that people see problems with the system, but there's a fundamental disconnect between the people who care about people learning (some of the teachers), and the people who care about keeping the school funded (administrators). The latter are the ones who get to choose what changes to implement, and they've got a huge incentive to attempt dramatic changes that sound cutting-edge, and that boost standardized test scores. Both of these at the expense of budgets that can be spent on teaching, because nobody sees an unambiguous and material result from a good education.

Ultimately, what I guess I'm saying is that what's becoming modern teaching is what's killing school for you, because it combines everything bad about traditional methods with none of its merits.

More germane to your problem, though, is this: your school is failing utterly to provide you with motivation to excel. The fact is, at some point, everyone who's able to eat regularly runs out of external motivations to push forward. What you need to do is find your own reasons, figure out what you need to do, and then do your best to get there. This may involve ignoring high school for better opportunities, but it almost certainly won't. Protip: it's not worth a gamble, so don't drop out if there's even the slightest reasonable chance you might need that diploma.

[Heron TSG]

Stay in school so that you can get to the fun stuff that comes later. You need a hobby, though. Get organized with some local people and bring your complaints to the government. They're probably reluctant to pepper spray a junior high kid for holding a sign and yelling.

[ChairmanPoo]

. They're probably reluctant to pepper spray a junior high kid for holding a sign and yelling.

ho ho ho

[optimumtact]

My teacher once told me a quote that I have since come to realise is one of the truest I have heard

"Hard work will always beat talent, where talent doesn't work hard."
You have to focus on the end goal, what is it you want to do? where do you see yourself in 10 years? If you don't enjoy something now don't focus on it, focus instead on what completing it will bring you and it becomes easier to motivate yourself to do things you don't enjoy. It will be really important that you cultivate an attitude of hardwork if you want to succeed in life, so despite how bad and boring something may seem try to do it to the best of your ability.

[Strife26]

Quit bitching and deal with it. If you're that bored with school, go learn stuff on your own time. Being the aloof cocky idiot, even amongst AP students, makes you an aloof cocky idiot.

[ChairmanPoo]

Thing is, being able to stwy focused on a task, is a capability, just like having an easier time understanding... whatever. In a way, it's a more important capability, because as optimumtact said, in the end work and practice is far more important than smarts (this is actually a paraphrase of Einstein, IIRC). Raw talent is nice to have, but in the end it just makes things easier, it doesn't render hard work unnecessary. This is even more true in university, where the ammount of information you'll have to gobble will be so humongous that the chances of "faking it" and still put out a passable exam will be minimal. So try to work on it, try to get better at staying focused, and alwayw keep your goal in mind

[LordBucket]

Junior in High School right now
What do I do?

My advice:

Don't worry about it. Contrary to what you've been told, high school grades matter not one tiny bit later in life. If you decide to go to college, any community college will accept you regardless of grades. Go for two years to get your general requirements out of the way. Then transfer to a "real" school for your degree. No one will care if you flunked out of high school. In fact, even if you do literally flunk out, you can take a high school equivalency test which is just as good for just about anything you're likely to care about.

And don't assume that college is necessary. There are plenty of people with college degrees with tens of thousands of dollars of school debt who can't find jobs. Some jobs require degrees. Some jobs do not. Some jobs don't require degrees, but you'll be paid more if you have one. Some it makes no difference.

Don't put yourself in debt going to college unless it will benefit you.

I'm supposedly brilliant, my IQ's 140+

The public school system is not designed to accomodate you. Again, don't stress over it. Your mental and emotional well being is far more important than anything you're likely to learn in a public high school classroom at this point. So long as you don't destroy yourself with drugs or get anyone pregnant, nothing you do in high school is likely to matter at all by the time you're 20.

Right now I'll probably end up being a writer on the side.

Note that school is completely irrelevant for this pursuit. Start submitting articles to magazines. Look on criagslist for copywriter jobs. Nobody cares about your grades or schooling if you're a good writer.

Do some tech work with technology to get by.

Degrees and schooling are notoriously unimportant in tech fields. If you flunk completely out of school, never graduate, then instead of spending years and tens of thousands of dollars in college, simply spend a couple months getting an MCSD, CCIE, or whatever certifications are in vogue by the time you graduate, you'll likely to be in much greater demand than somebody who got straight As in high school, and has a four year computer science degree. A certification will get you a job. And four years of relevant work experience is generally more valued in the computer field than a four year degree.

What the fuck will I do with my life?

Whatever you want to. Decide what you want to do, then do it. Planning your life from the perspective of trying to find a vocation that will allow you to survive is not conducive to happiness in life. Yes, a doctor or attorney probably makes more money than a ski lift station attendant. But some people will be happier as ski lift station attendants than as doctors. However, probably very few people who are happy being ski lift station attendants dreamed as children of one day becoming ski lift station attendants. Rather, they knew only that they loved skiing, and they found a way to live their life that allowed them to immerse themselves in what they loved to do.

Life is far more flexible than many would have you believe. What do you want to do? Don't worry about jobs just yet. What do you want to do?

But anyone who doesn't fit into a square hole is swiftly cast out of society,
social circles, and the 'establishment'.

...that may be, but you'd be doing yourself a disservice to allow your life to be defined by the expectations of others. If you don't want to do what society wants you to do, then don't. You're the one who has to live with your life, not those other people giving you advice. Some people are happy working 40 hours a week for average pay, commuting an hour to work every day, having 2.5 kids and living simple, stable lives. Some people aren't. You don't have to live that way if you don't want to. Some people are happy going to school for 8 years piling up degrees and credentials to get high-paying, high-stress six-figure income jobs. Some people aren't. And some people are happy flunking out of school and going backpacking around the world with no plans for the future at all. And again, some people aren't. Whatever you do or don't want, forcing yourself to live a lifestyle that you don't want is a very effective way to be extremely unhappy. Little is as sad in life, as spending decades working very hard to create a life that you don't want.

Instead, ask yourself what you want to do, then see if you can make it happen.

Can I change the world for the better, which is my dream?

Please...forgive my cynicism. However, if you really want to make the world a better place, I would council you to try to keep in mind that the world might not want to be made a better place. Attempting to change others in a manner that you perceive to be for the better will not always be welcomed by them.

The people trying to force you into that square hole probably genuinely believe it's in your best interest. Why should it be any more pleasant for them to be forced into round ones?

Live your own life. Don't allow others to force you into a life you don't want. And allow others to live as they choose. Don't try to force them to live up to your expectations.

[Falc]

I'm putting in 30% max, because I can't stand the teachers, the students, or the administration.

The problem I see with this is that if you try to pursue a 'normal' career, you're likely to end up being unable to stand your supervisors, your colleagues, or the administration that comes with adult life.

So... Either plan to become your own boss, in which case your education really won't matter, or you'll need to learn to get along better with the people around you. Perhaps that's what you need to use these years in school for. If you can get by giving only 30%, spend 50 % on fitting in better.

[ChairmanPoo]

Either plan to become your own boss, in which case your education really won't matter

My ass it wont matter. Having an education is always better than not having an education, whether you are self-employed or not.