Sooooo.....

[alphabassettgrrl]

Bought my airline ticket this morning to go home to Minnesota for a visit.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Yay for our highschoolers, especially Tori for braving full public school!

My unsolicited advice - find people who make you laugh, regardless of where they stand on the totem pole. No matter what crap other kids (or teachers) may throw at you, if you've got real friends, you'll be much better off.

[Ghoulish Delight]

My advice? Do the homework, study for the test, learn something. It may suck, but so does constantly having to justify your existence to various teachers, counselors, etc. The biggest complaint I ever hear about anyone's high school experience is how much the teachers and counselors hassled them. If you get your sh*t done and aren't a jerk, that problem goes away.

[BarTopDancer]

My advice is to do your best and like who you like. After high school it doesn't matter where you rank on the popularity scale and job applications don't ask if you were on the Homecoming Court.

[Alex]

Yay! Advice: I'll just edit what GD said to start:

[strike]Do the homework, study for[/strike] Ace the tests, learn [strike]something[/strike] how to learn.

Homework beyond that which is necessary for you to have learned what you're learning is a sucker's game. Don't let them make you a sucker. 20% of the effort will get you 90% of the result. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to get that last 10% but there's a point at which getting the last 0.1% isn't worth the effort.

Never be the first one to buy drugs from a new source. Let your friends be the early adopting guinea pigs.

Generally, the teachers aren't as stupid an malicious as you'll think they are. But some are so make sure your vehicle identifications are solid before you act.

Always wear sunscreen. Wait, no, that's post-high school advice.

You'll do stupid stuff. The goal is not to avoid doing stupid stuff, the goal is to survive the stupid stuff you do. So put a little bit of thought into your stupid stuff selections (taking a moment to think about it is why I stopped street racing after my first time).

A great teacher-student relationship is a two way street. If you wait for them to realize what a wonderful person you are it may never happen. They have 200 wonderful people a day to think about.

It is almost a certainty that the person you love more than life itself is not a person for whom that feeling will last. Don't worry, if it is you'll still love them when you're 45 so you can wait to get married.

Sex is fun when you're 15, 16, 17, etc. Taking care of a kid is not, regardless of what your pre-calculus teacher tells you.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Alex

Homework beyond that which is necessary for you to have learned what you're learning is a sucker's game. Don't let them make you a sucker. 20% of the effort will get you 90% of the result. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to get that last 10% but there's a point at which getting the last 0.1% isn't worth the effort.

Can't really argue with that. I guess I'd genericize my advice as, "Do what it takes to keep the teachers off your back." No doubt a good chunk of what you'll be assigned is arbitrary and superfluous - but the only thing worse than doing arbitrary and superfluous work is being punished for not doing it. It will drive you mad.

If you establish yourself as capable, most teachers will indeed let you get away with ignoring work they know that you're smart enough to not need to do. But there will be teachers that demand it anyway, and at some point it becomes more effort and frustration fighting it, even if you're 100% right that the work is stupid and unnecessary, than you would have expended just doing the work.

In other words, pick your battles.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

My unsolicited advice - find people who make you laugh, regardless of where they stand on the totem pole. No matter what crap other kids (or teachers) may throw at you, if you've got real friends, you'll be much better off.

CP gets extra Awesome Points for this post.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Really getting into this downloading thing. When you're broke, free stuff is pretty damn cool...

[alphabassettgrrl]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

If you establish yourself as capable, most teachers will indeed let you get away with ignoring work they know that you're smart enough to not need to do.

Oh, yeah, this will get you far.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Alex

Homework beyond that which is necessary for you to have learned what you're learning is a sucker's game. Don't let them make you a sucker. 20% of the effort will get you 90% of the result. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to get that last 10% but there's a point at which getting the last 0.1% isn't worth the effort.

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

But there will be teachers that demand it anyway, and at some point it becomes more effort and frustration fighting it, even if you're 100% right that the work is stupid and unnecessary, than you would have expended just doing the work.

In other words, pick your battles.

Agreed with GD. I spent much of high school wasting energy fighting the system. "Why should I do the homework if I already know how to do it" lead to my C average. Alex's advice only works if the teacher grades the class that way. Make sure you understand what percentage of your grade is composed of homework, tests, reports, etc. Then do the opposite of what I did. Get over yourself and do what you have to do. It's not necessarily that your grades matter so much - what matters is that you don't get an ulcer over walking the tightrope.

Unless you feed off of that kind of adrenaline. Even so, "Get over yourself and do what you have to do" is a good life lesson.