Primal With A Side Of FABULOUS page 373

[drssgchic]

The school nurse had to call my mom once to pick me up because I was "puking all over the school." Well after I threw up the first time, I felt fine. Until I threw up the second time.

[naiadknight]

I was more notorious for being the "I can't miss this class" sick kid. I remember, one time, my parents wanting to keep me home, but I suited up and got in the car because "I can't miss my chem test." I got to school and went to AP chem teachers classroom (where most of the upper grades in my HS hung out before school started) and promptly fell asleep on the tables using my backpack as a table. Apparently, I freaked the hell out of my teacher because I was "burning up with fever" when he shook me awake to get me off the table to go to class. He told me to go to the nurse and go home. I said "I have one of your tests today" and started stumbling off to my first class. This 6'5" 300 lb behemoth of a man, this teacher who said if you missed a test without a damn good reason, you failed it, stood in front of me and said "[Naiad], go home and get well. You're not taking my test today." He had another student walk me to the nurse because he was afraid I'd just try to go to my first period class instead. My mom took me to the doc after she picked me up because "106* fever will fry your brain."
Yeah... I may be sick, but I'll try my damned to get my shit done.

[onalark]

My name is Coriander.
Yes... Coriander.
Really???
WHY!
I've grown to like it, but it was a curse as a child.
No one in hick-town TN knew what that was when I was a kid.
(It's a spice for those who still wonder... the food TV has helped, but doesn't cover all of the bases.)

Aw. I think that name is great! (But I love coriander.)

It could be worse. They could have named you Cilantro!

[Gravyboat]

I always thought school was a total joke. It was so mind-numbingly easy and slow and monotonous that I always wanted to shoot myself in the face. I started off trying really hard to follow the rules like a good girl in elementary school, but as I got older I realized that there was no reason whatsoever to behave. I decided that if I wasn't getting anything out of it, then I didn't need to go. Eventually, in high school, my mom would drop me off, I'd walk in the front door, walk out the back door, and then go back home and read homoerotic fanfics, paint, masturbate, sing, and code websites all day.

Waaaay better than deciphering the deep, hidden meanings of the Canterbury Fails, or doing tedious science experiments where 90% of the work is repetitive documentation, or doing homework which boils down to "Spend 2 hours proving you weren't asleep in class today by repeating everything you learned."

[drssgchic]

I always showed up to school because that's pretty much ALL I did. Homework was hit or miss, attention depended on the subject. But showing up and appearing to pay attention did get me to pass a lot of grades

[Gay Panda]

I was so good at the Attentive Face in class. Teachers never had any idea I was really fighting Klingons behind my studious exterior.

[naiadknight]

Elementary school was a joke. Every teacher I had tried to get me to stop reading in class by trying to ask me questions and then getting miffed when I got them right without looking up from my book. In all except one case, I had a deal with the teachers that I'd walk in the door, they'd hand me the homework and classwork, I'd turn it in, and I'd get to reading. The one exception was my gym teachers, who wouldn't even let me read and instead made me do shit like the Macarena and climbing a rope.
After that, I went into the magnet program, and I was actually challenged by most of my classes. The ones where I wasn't challenged, I read.

[badgergirl]

Wasting your time brushing badgergirl. Get a Wagner Spray gun, it's for iodine-deficient people that are too busy for hours of manual painting.
I'm thinking of some sort of tub or bucket that you would just sit on, thereby soaking your bits while you work from home or watch the latest episode of Glee or Duck Dynasty, whichever you prefer.

Listen up everyone, you've been doing it all wrong. What you need to do is get your bucket of iodine and FREEZE it until it looks like a cola slushy and then immerse yourself in it for at least an hour. I've been doing this for the last month and let me tell you I am ripped. And also stained.

Thank you for the welcome. Not sure I'm up to writing a whole journal, but I definitely love hanging out with gay panda and the rest of you.

[Gravyboat]

In all except one case, I had a deal with the teachers that I'd walk in the door, they'd hand me the homework and classwork, I'd turn it in, and I'd get to reading.

God, I wish they'd have let me do that. My experience sounds similar to yours, except my teachers would get mad at me for trying to turn homework in early, or working several chapters ahead, or reading in class even though I already knew everything they were saying. Instead of working with me, they just got huffy and authoritarian, and I was NOT impressed.

After that, I went into the magnet program, and I was actually challenged by most of my classes. The ones where I wasn't challenged, I read.

I don't know what the magnet program is, but when I got into 6th grade I got put into the gifted program. My classes got more interesting then (at least the material did) but they were still just as easy and full of monotonous busywork. I just did the stuff I thought was interesting and ignored the stuff I didn't. No amount of lectures or stern talkings-to helped. Most of my teachers kind of loathed me. Actually, they were probably just frustrated because I had "so much potential". But I wasn't going to do anything I wasn't getting anything out of. It's not as if I did homework for my teachers' benefit; it was supposed to be for my benefit. If I wasn't benefiting, why do it?

Moral of the story: If I ever have kids, they are NOT going to public school. Worst years of my life. Biggest waste of time ever.

Also: I was excited to learn about visual-spatial learners later on. It finally gave me the words and insight to describe what I'd been experiencing all through school: a clash between my learning style and the schools' teaching style. Apparently it's a pretty widespread, yet alarmingly unknown, problem.

[naiadknight]

I'm a kinesthetic- visual learner. I've known for years and tried to apply since I figured it out.
The magnet program is akin to the gifted program. Basically, you take all the smart/ talented kids from all over the district with a specific interest (science, just smart, law, business, etc) and throw 'em all into the same school. Then you rip through the high school requirements in a matter of months (I was done with most of it by sophomore year, done with all of it by senior year) and then give 'em interesting stuff. I took an electron microscope class, a CAD class, a circuits class, a humanities and linguistics class and a handful of other shit I've mostly forgotten. I got rid of most of my freshman year of college and lib arts requirements in high school because of AP courses, so I got out of college with an engineering degree in 3.5 years.
I think if I'd gone through a regular high school, I actually would've killed myself, instead of coming real close and then calling a friend. In a normal high school, I would've been valedictorian, bored to death, friendless, and bullied (smart white girl with no gang affiliations in the ghetto/ barrio.)